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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Three Great Facts 

By 
ISAAC N. TOOLE 




PIERSON & LANTZ CO. 

PRINTERS & PUBLISHERS 

Indianapolis, Ind. 



COPYRIGHT 1919 xM £ \ 
I. N, TOOLE \%\ 



©CI. A 5 1536 9 

APR 29 1919 



PREFACE 

Rev. I. N. Toole is well known in the East Cen- 
tral States as a man of deep spiritual life, devoted 
to his convictions and clear in his views. He has 
written a book, entitled "The Three Facts/' In this 
work he considers clearly and accurately the Three 
Great Facts of this world's history — "Facts" around 
which all other facts and conditions must settle and 
be settled. "Facts are stubborn things," and there 
are Facts and Facts ; but none are so columnas in 
the field of truth as the three discussed in this book. 
First, Man was once holy. God could not create an 
unholy thing; nor would He if He could. Again, 
nearly every nation of note and antiquity has its 
golden era, the dream of a period when God, or the 
gods, walked with men; when evil and death were 
unknown. That dream of the nations is the teach- 
ing of Holy Writ. 

Second, Man must have fallen. The golden era 
has long since passed. He must have fallen from 
his Father's upper story window. He must have 
fallen a long ways. He is badly mangled and 
bruised in every part of his nature. Sin, guilt, pun- 
ishment, suffering and death are the most character- 
istic elements of human history. 

Third, The Deliverer will come. That is the 
dream of hope in all ages: the "Labors of Her- 
cules," the "vision of Hope," the coming of "Shi- 
loh," are all but gleams of light. * The vanguard of 
the day-dawn which heralds the coming of the day- 



star. The Deliverer, the Author of Salvation with 
healing, full restoration in His wings. Amen ! He 
has come. He is here. Man has been redeemed. 
He may be fully restored. "Wherefore, He is able 
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make inter- 
cession for them." See Heb. vii, 25. 

This book of Brother Toole's considers these 
"Three Great Facts/' It is readable; it is reason- 
able; it is sane; it is scriptural. "I speak as unto 
wise men." Judge ye what ye should do. 

A. L. Whitcomb. 



For some time many of my friends have urged 
me to write a book on the great theme of redemp- 
tion. It has been the all-absorbing subject of my 
ministry, thought and meditation. Feeling my in- 
ability to accomplish such a task, for some time I 
hesitated, but after much earnest prayer I was made 
sure the Lord would be pleased with such an effort. 
I am very conscious that the work is far from be- 
ing perfect on this great theme of themes. Again, 
I am conscious that many far more able writers have 
penned this theme of themes with much greater 
brilliancy and accuracy, but it seemed the burden of 
my heart could not be removed but with pen. I 
therefore leave the result with Him, whose I am and 
whom I serve. 

The Author. 



THREE GREAT FACTS 

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Three Great Facts 



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All we hope to do, and to this end shall we labor 
in this effort, is to establish truth upon a logical and 
scriptural basis. God says, "Come, let us reason to- 
gether." To reason with God is to reason from His 
side of the great question of salvation. It is to put 
the supernatural power of God against sin instead 
of the mere natural powers of man; the institution 
of Divine redemptive power against the powers of 
evil, instead of the institutions of this world; the 
supreme sovereign of light against the ruler of dark- 
ness. God must possess the throne of absolute ruler- 
ship. To deny Him of this supreme authority is to 
exalt the ruler of darkness to equal power with God. 

The theory and method of redemption is not un- 
reasonable if correctly understood. It is only rea- 
sonable to conclude that God, the Infinite ONE, is 
abundantly able to undo all that the great enemy of 
souls has done or may do in destroying the work 



6 THREE GREAT FACTS 

and disarranging the Divine will in the creation and 
redemption of man. To reason otherwise is to make 
God' finite instead of Infinite. It is to bring God 
under limitations and make Infinite Deity surrender 
to His enemy. It is to crown the prince of darkness 
above the Prince of Light and give the supreme 
sceptre of power to the ruler of destruction. 

How inglorious such reasoning! How destruc- 
tive to the soul's hope ! If we cannot be freed from 
every effect of sin finally, then sin will have its repre- 
sentative in man through eternity and will mock at 
the frown of God. What hope have we if Satan is 
not Christ's defeated foe, and sin and its stains re- 
movable by His blood ? Did He not come to set in 
effective operation a system of Divine power that 
would destroy the works of the devil ? Not only de- 
stroy the work he has done, but destroy his power so 
that he may do no more. "For this purpose the Son 
of God was manifested that He might destroy the 
works of the devil," I John 3 :8. His whole life 
and death was for this purpose and to this end. And 
on the cross in the last moment of His sacrificial 
death and redemptory suffering He cried, "IT IS 
FINISHED!" 

The Basis of Redemption 

The whole redemptive scheme must be based upon 
two preceding facts. The fact of the creation of 
man in the image of God, and under moral obliga- 
tion to observe His commandments, and the fact of 



THREE GREAT FACTS 7 

the transgression or fall, the violation of the Divine 
law. As Creator reverential obedience and honor 
was due Him, and as Supreme Ruler His righteous 
law must be obeyed. If man never possessed a 
higher state of moral character than now he could 
not have fallen. The fact that man before the fall 
possessed a high degree of moral character is shown 
by his moral obligation to obey the Divine law. He 
must have had the moral fitness or ability to obey 
it or he would not have been held responsible for dis- 
obeying it. Man's high degree of intelligence gave 
him the pleasure of perfectly understanding the Di- 
vine mind so far as it concerns His created people. 
His responsibility to God was based upon his knowl- 
edge of God, and his moral power to perform his 
obligation to the Divine will. Man being created in 
the class of divine beings, naturally came under the 
control of the Divine law. As a child born in this 
country is born under its law and government, and 
as it reaches a certain age it becomes responsible. 
His responsibility is based upon his knowledge of 
right and wrong. If he does not know right from 
wrong he is not accountable. He is counted an 
idiot. There are myriads who profess to be chil- 
dren of God that claim it is impossible to know 
whether they are right or wrong. They make them- 
selves to be spiritual idiots. If man in the begin- 
ning did not belong to God as His own created be- 
ing, he could not have fallen away from God, hence 
he could not be redeemed back to God. If the story 



8 THREE GREAT FACTS 

of the creation of man is true, the story of the fall 
must be true ; if the story of the fall is true, the story 
of redemption must be true. The story of the fall 
cannot be true unless the story of the creation is 
true. Hence the fact of redemption rests upon these 
two preceding facts — the creation and fall of man. 
They are all true or they are all untrue. 

It is but foolishness and mere beating of the air 
to preach redemption through Christ if man never 
fell from purity and moral rectitude by transgres- 
sion, as redemption means to purchase back, to re- 
store, deliver, to save from penalty of law. There 
can be no moral degeneration where there is no 
moral obligation. Where there is no loss there can 
be no restoration. Where there was no previous 
claim there can be no redemption. If man did not 
fall there was nothing lost, and if there was noth- 
ing lost surely there can be nothing restored. 

Science Brings No Hope 

Science and discovery have done nothing for us by 
way of bridging the enormous gulf between God and 
fallen man, but have labored to remove the only pos- 
sible way poor fallen souls as wandering stars may 
return to God and their predesigned place. 

Evolution would tear away the fact of our origin, 
and thus break all our right and possible relation to 
God, dropping us over an unbridgeable gulf, leaving 
us to wander in the dark and dreary plains of shore- 
less imagination, with no star of hope, no Christ, no 






three: great facts 9 

grace, no light in the tomti to assure us of a hope 
beyond. Evolutionists would have us step from the 
sure foundation laid by the word of inspiration, 
against which their philosophy has proved nothing. 
When they have established their philosophical con- 
clusions upon a basis that proves the story of the 
creation of man a myth, then, and not until then, 
will we accept it. 

There is an enormous gulf between the lowest 
man and the highest beast, and science and discovery 
have done absolutely nothing to bridge that gulf. 
Every false religion and philosophy has a broken 
link. True religion and sound philosophy grant that 
the connecting link between God and man was bro- 
ken by the Adamic transgression, and may, and must 
be united again by Christ. He is the Divine con- 
nection between God and man, the means by which 
God again unites Himself with His fallen people. 

No Relation Between Man and Beast 

The evidence that man was created, not evolved, 
and that he had no relation to the lower order of be- 
ings, no agreeableness nor fellowship with them 
whatever, is furnished in the following quotation: 
"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl 
of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for 
Adam there was not found an help meet for him." 
Gen. 2 :20. The fact that there was not found 
among all the beasts of the field a help meet for 
Adam is sufficient evidence that man was created in 



IO THREE GREAT FACTS 

a non-relative rank of superior eminence, possessing 
a higher correspondence with God, with whom God 
could commune and associate, and to whom He 
could communicate His own mind, possessing such a 
high degree of intelligence as to be able to under- 
stand the Divine will, and, under God, oversee His 
earthly interests. No beast was formed suitable for 
a help meet. She was to be, not inferior, nor supe- 
rior, but equal — a suitable help meet. They were to 
replenish the earth with a people of their own like- 
ness ; and they, being in the likeness of God, were to 
people the earth with a God-like people. 

The fact that God placed man under moral obliga- 
tion to obey His law proves his superiority over the 
lower order of beings. 

Where there is responsibility there must be ability 
to render such service as is required. 



three: grkat facts 1 1 



THE FACT OF CREATION 

Now we will briefly consider the creation of man 
in the light of the Scripture. 

There are four points in the creation of man 
which we wish to consider. I. Man is the result 
of a Divine desire. M ( an w r as first conceived in 
the heart of God as a desire. In the deep sanctuary 
of His heart He molded the likeness of man. He 
saw him first in all his three-fold glory in the secret 
hall of imagination. 2. Man is the result of the 
Divine will. His judgment approved the desire of 
His heart and His will carried it into effect, and His 
heart desire became a living being, and the being 
must agree with the desire. 3. Man is the result of 
a Divine act. "Let us make man in our own image." 
Man was made, not evolved. The heart desires of 
God gave to man the very life principles of His Di- 
vine being; His judgment gave him the approval of 
Divine justice, and God's creative power brought 
him forth in the Divine will. Thus he stood com- 
plete in all the fullness of the God-head. The visible 
expression of the God-head, the three-in-one. God 
being holy, He could not desire, commit an act, or 
will anything unholy. And, furthermore, man being 



12 THREE GREAT FACTS 

created in the image of God, and a representative of 
the eternal US or God-head, gives us an incontro- 
vertible evidence that man could not have origin- 
ated among the lower order of beings. There is no 
doubt but that the chief desire of God was that He 
and His created ones might have perfect fellowship 
with each other. 

"Let us make man in our own image." These are 
not the words the Creator used when the beasts of 
the field came into being. "Let the earth bring forth 
the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creep- 
ing thing, and beast of the earth after his kind; 
and it was so." It will be observed in this quotation 
that each class of beasts came forth of the earth 
after his kind, not of God nor after His image. No 
inbreathed spirit life which gave God-consciousness, 
no careful making after the image of God. 

Jesus confirmed the Scripture account of the crea- 
tion of man. "Have ye not read, that He which 
made them at the beginning made them male and 
female?" Matt. 19:4. Mark 10:6: Made in the 
image of God. 

Man's finite correspondence with Infinite gave him 
access to the Divine realm as a proper associate of 
Deity, and as a finite member of the Divine kingdom. 
His coherent relation to his Creator gave him limit- 
less rights and boundless possibilities in the infinity 
of God. 



three: great facts 13 

He had a capacity to appreciate and enjoy the 
blessedness, the fadeless and unabating glories of 
the eternal kingdom of light. Yet he was dependent, 
and was under moral obligation to his Creator, and 
must render to Him perfect obedience. 

Morai, Freedom Limited 

His moral freedom or power of choice brought 
him under strict accountability to his Supreme Sov- 
ereign. His personal liberty did not give him a right 
to overstep the law and indulge in the forbidden, but 
the power to do so. His free moral agency gave 
him the power to do right or wrong as he might 
choose, but not the right to do wrong. 

Some people oppose the legislation of laws to pro- 
hibit the propagation of a business that is demoraliz- 
ing or that infringes upon or injures the righteous 
interests of their fellow-men. They say such laws 
take away their personal liberty. Such ideas are due 
to downright devilishness or gross ignorance. Per- 
sonal liberty can only be exercised on the side of 
right. They say a person has right to take his own 
life if he wishes to do so, or to commit any sin he 
wishes. This is not true. It is absolutely false. 
No man has a right to do wrong, for wrong is never 
right. There is no such thing as legalized wrong. 
A law that legalizes the existence of wrong is as 
wrong as the wrong it legalizes. Every law that pro- 
tects right prohibits wrong. No one can be right 



14 THREE GREAT FACTS 

and not stand against wrong. Any man that will 
not support a righteous law or government is an an- 
archist, in action if not in heart. 

Divine Charge 

God charged Adam faithfully not to violate His 
commandment, and told him plainly what the conse- 
quence would be if he did. You see, their personal 
liberty or moral freedom did not give them a right 
to violate the commandment of God. Having the 
power to do wrong does not make it right. 

Free Moral Agency 

This moral principle of life which Adam pos- 
sessed qualified him to discharge all the moral duties 
demanded of him by his Creator. It enabled him to 
understand the Divine will and to observe and keep 
all its requirements. A Free moral agent De- 
pendent upon God for his life and all that per- 
tains to it, yet in this sense he was independent. His 
obedience to God was not compulsory. God could 
not compel him to obey. God created him free; to 
compel him to obey would take away his moral free- 
dom. He must obey by the volition of his own will. 
The service and worship of his Creator must be the 
desire and choice of his heart. A willing service is 
highly pleasing and acceptable to God; it glorifies 
Him; it shows love and respect. God did not create 
man to be His slave, but to love and obey Him. He 



THRKS GREAT FACTS 15 

was to be the being of God's love, and God the ob- 
ject of his love and affections. 

The object of the tree of forbidden fruit was to 
test his free moral character. God having created 
him free to choose for himself, he must now choose 
between obedience and disobedience to his Creator's 
will. He must know his moral freedom to be happy. 
The joy of life and pleasure of service springs from 
the fact of moral freedom, but his free moral power 
must be exercised according to the will of Him who 
made him free, if he would retain his freedom and 
enjoy life. 

A life lived in the Divine thought and purpose 
knows no limit to its privileges and possibilities, and 
enjoys the supreme blessedness of life-union and 
holy fellowship with the Father. Who can even im- 
agine what the Divine thought and purpose of life 
for Adam would have meant had he continued in it ? 

God's righteousness and love for the finite man of 
His likeness, the object of His holy desire, the mas- 
terpiece of His creation, caused him to draw a line 
of restriction, or a boundary line around his moral 
liberty to keep him within the zone of life, righteous- 
ness, love and obedience ; placing the awful penalty 
of death for the act of overstepping. 

To all that' was right, the Divine permissive, his 
privileges were limitless. He could freely eat. He 
could indulge to his perfect satisfaction. His pure 
mind, desires, appetites and passions would not go 



1 6 THRES GREAT FACTS 

beyond temperance in the things that were legiti- 
mate. All intemperance is of sin. 

Man's Miorai, Construction 

God constructed man upon the basis of harmony 
with the Divine order of things, setting in his three- 
fold nature a constitution of laws which enabled 
him to mingle freely and harmoniously with the 
heavenly system. His physical man agreed with 
the earthly laws, His spiritual man with the heav- 
enly laws. 

God's relation to man was infinitely nearer than 
that of a Creator. He held a paternal relation. He 
formed the physical body out of the dust of the 
ground, but the soul and spirit came of Himself. 
Man held the highest relation to God; his very life 
was a part of God. In one sense, perhaps, he was 
God's highest created intelligence. To our knowl- 
edge no other order of His created beings ever bore 
the likeness of the THREE in ONE. 



THREE GREAT FACTS I 7 



THE FORMATION OF MAN 

"And the Lord God formed man out of the dust 
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life; and man became a living soul." 

God, with the dust of the ground, carefully 
formed man's physical organic body; carefully and 
properly compounding every constructive element; 
binding every atom together by a coherent law in 
perfect consistency and uniformity; stretching 
through the entire system a mass of nerve wires, at- 
taching them to one central point in the brain so that 
no attack can be made in the whole system without 
instant consciousness ; leaving also channels of com- 
munication to all parts of the body through which 
the fluid may flow, carrying the food supply to the 
entire system. And thus every function of the body 
was properly arranged. But still this beautiful or- 
ganism was without conscious life. 

Nothing so far but inanimate matter has been used 
in its construction. Unification of material inani- 
mate substances cannot generate life. Life can only 
germinate from an antecedent life. Spontaneous 
germination of life is an absolute impossibility. 

The physical body is but the temple in which the 



1 8 THREE GREAT FACTS 

soul and spirit dwell. It is also the medium between 
the spiritual and the natural. The spirit and soul 
take "possession of the five senses and thereby come 
in conscious contact with natural things. 

Inbreathed Life 

And — God — breathed into his nostrils the breath 
of life; and man became a living soul/' Up to this 
point of the process of his creation he had not taken 
on any part of God's nature. The physical man be- 
ing perfected by the Creator's hand, He now im- 
parts life. When this life-breath of God entered 
into the physical temple the material organs began 
to play ; the blood starts coursing through the veins ; 
the pulse begins to throb; the mind begins to think 
and reason ; the eyes begin to see material beauties ; 
the ears begin to hear sounds as of music played 
upon a new and strange harp; the tongue begins to 
speak words and sing melodies never known before. 
"And man became a living soul;" a God-conscious 
and world-conscious being. A marvelous creature 
now moves among the blending beauties and splen- 
dor of the Eden palace. 

He is different from God and yet like God. He 
has a physical body, yet he bears the image of God. 
He stands as an eternal evidence or fact of the 
THREE-IN-ONE, Father, Son and Spirit; body, 
soul and spirit; the manifest US in one. 



THREE GREAT FACTS 19 

THE GARDEN OF EDEN 

In contemplating the creation of the God-like 
man, his place of dwelling must be considered and 
arranged. His spiritual dwelling was in God. "God 
is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in 
God, and God in him," I John 4:16. But he had a 
physical relation to this physical world. His place 
of dwelling had two apartments, physical and spir- 
itual. He must occupy both at the same time. 
Physically he dwelt in this world, spiritually he dwelt 
in God. And thus, being holy, his physical apart- 
ment must be holy to be a suitable dwelling place 
for the God-like man. 

The fitness of Adam to have communion and fel- 
lowship with God, and dwell in the presence of His 
effulgent glory, and delight himself in such an en- 
vironment, made it impossible for him to dwell in 
any other without a change of nature. 

The Construction of Eden 

God, perfectly understanding the laws of fellow- 
ship, or association, prepared an earthly place, with 
all its purity, beauty and harmony, after the heav- 
enly order. It was indeed an earthly heaven, pre- 
pared for an earthly divine being; a garden of God 
for the God-man, made after the likeness and order 
of heaven ; for the man made after the likeness and 
order of God. 



20 THREE GREAT FACTS 

There must be an agreeableness between the holy 
being and his environment. The nature of every 
creature demands an element which agrees with its 
nature. This fact God has thus established forever, 
that a Christian or holy person cannot dwell in an 
holy place, or have fellowship with unholy environ- 
ment. 

In this case man did not make this environment ; 
God, knowing what his pure nature required, pre- 
pared it for him. But when his nature changed, as 
a result of his sin, his environment changed. The 
earthly paradise was lost. He was driven out. He 
had forfeited all right to its pleasures and benefits. 
To all its rich delights and sublime realities there re- 
mained to him not a single privilege. They had dis- 
turbed the Divine order of life. 

These blending principles or laws of harmony and 
fellowship cannot be disturbed without immediate 
separation and loss of harmony and peace. To de- 
stroy these congenial principles and co-operative 
laws is to sever Divine communication and fellow- 
ship. 

Every element must be in its own class. God cre- 
ated man in His own class, with Divine co-operative 
principles adhering perfectly to the Divine will, and 
blending perfectly with the Divine nature. This is 
the only state in which man can enjoy communion 
and fellowship with God. The drunkard goes to the 
saloon; the gambler to the gambling den; the de- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 21 

votee of pleasure to the place of amusement; the 
Godly to the place of prayer and praise. These in- 
ward operating laws of social harmony will classify 
all. All who have fellowship with the ungodly are 
ungodly. All who can enjoy carnal or evil things 
are as carnal in heart as the things they enjoy. 
"Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the 
world (evil world) is the enemy of God," James 4 14. 
"If any man love the world (the evil world), the 
love of the Father is not in him," I John 2:15. 
Hence, you see, it is a scientific fact, and God and 
science agree, that it is as possible for God to enjoy 
evil associations as it is for those who have His na- 
ture. To be a Christian at all is to partake of His 
Divine nature, II Pet. 1 14. It is to be a new crea- 
ture, II Cor. 5:17. This being true, his earthly com- 
munications must be righteous and pure. 

Relation of Natural and Spiritual 

The human and Divine being has a close correla- 
tive connection to the natural and spiritual world. 
If a person is fit to associate with God, he is unfit to 
associate with sin. He cannot agree with both. A 
salvation that will fit a soul for a holy heaven will 
unfit it for the unholy of earth. To be righteous is to 
cease to be unrighteous. 

God still works out His will after the Eden style. 
"And He hath raised us up together, and made us sit 
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here 



22 THREE GREAT FACTS 

you see, we are lifted back into the heavenly place. 
We again have our spiritual dwelling in Christ ; and 
as He has commanded us to come out from among 
the ungodly things, we have our earthly dwelling 
among the legitimate things only. 

It was the holy nature of the God-like man, his 
coherent relation to God, that demanded for him a 
holy dwelling place. He could enjoy no other. God 
still requires a separation from all sinful things; it 
is an absolute necessity, that the life union with God 
may be conceived and the coherent relation main- 
tained. Adam sinned and died spiritually, and thus 
lost his life union with God. This life union with 
God cannot be restored until the cause of disunion 
is removed, which is sin. This, however, we w 7 ill 
treat more fully in the next chapter. 

Finished Eden 

Accordingly, this lovely Eden was prepared with 
all its blissful delights, its sparkling streams and 
beautiful cascades, from which a silvery mist went 
up to water the garden. No overspreading, angry 
clouds, flashing lightning or bellowing thunder, to 
excite fear or disturb the peace and quietness of the 
Eden home. No scorching sun rays to wither or 
fade its vernal beauty, for all elements were per- 
fectly poised and blended. No fumes of putrid mat- 
ter mingled with the aroma of its perennial bloom- 
ing and fruitage. The terrestrial paradise was of 
almost celestial beauty and grandeur. Its bowers 



three; great facts 23 

overhung with floral draperies and evergreen fes- 
toons; the intermingling branches of the trees 
formed beautiful arcades, such as no one but the 
God of nature could build. 

In this Eden love-castle the Lord God placed His 
earthly representatives, His semi-human and semi- 
divine beings, the seed from which the entire human 
race should germinate. 

Had not this seed been corrupted, it would have 
multiplied its own likeness in the earth, and the earth 
would have been inhabited with a God-like people, 
people after God's own likeness. 



24 THREE GREAT FACTS 



THE FACT OF SIN 

Now, as we have briefly considered the fact that 
man was created in the image of God, and that be- 
cause of a necessity, God being holy, we will now 
note carefully the evidence of the fact of sin, and 
in proving the fact of sin we will more fully estab- 
lish the fact that man was created holy; for if man 
fell at all he must have fallen from holiness or a holy 
state, as there are but two states, holy and unholy, 
pure and impure, clean and unclean, right and 
wrong. And as we have shown in the foregoing 
pages that man was the result of a Divine desire, 
the effect of a Divine act, and the expression of the 
Divine will, therefore he must have been holy. Then 
the fact that man is unholy now proves the fall and 
the effect of the fall. 

Least Change a Fact 

Can there be a change made in any material or 
immaterial element that would not be a positive fact? 
There can be no change in the effect of a cause with- 
out a change in the cause. Every productive cause 
will produce its own likeness in its generative effect. 
The creative power of God produced a holy man. 
His holiness was a condition of life. The contact of 
the soul of the holy man with the power of the en- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 25 

emy produced an unholy condition, or a condition 
like the cause, enmity. The changing of the condi- 
tion of the life of the holy man and woman from 
holy to unholy can be no less than a positive fact, a 
fearful reality. Furthermore, if the contact of the 
soul with the power of Satan wrought a positive 
Christ's redemptive power must also effect a positive 
change in the condition of life, then contact with 
change in the condition of life. If the effect of sin 
in the heart life is conducive of evil, the effect of re- 
deeming grace must be conducive of righteousness. 

In the parable of the wheat and tares we do not 
understand that the wheat degenerated into tares 
through the process of generation. Jesus, in an- 
swering the disciples' question, "From whence then 
hath it tares ?" said, "An enemy hath done this." The 
devil sowed evil seed after his own nature, and, of 
course, it produced his likeness. "The field is the 
world; the good seed are the children of the king- 
dom, but the tares are the children of the wicked 
one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil. He 
that sowed the good seed is the Son of Man." Each 
seed generates its own likeness. The proof of the 
fact that the enemy had sowed evil seed in the field 
was its visible generated product. It was when the 
blades appeared that the tares were discovered. The 
seed was secretly sown, but its generating effect was 
visible. 

The tare seed was sown in the heart of Adam and 
Eve by the enemy (Satan) and every generation of 



26 THREE GREAT FACTS 

Adam has been wicked. The parable shows that the 
good seed does not come from Adam, but from the 
Son of Man (Christ). 

Cain and Abel represent the wheat and tares in the 
field, though Abel was not born righteous, but made 
righteous through faith in Christ as represented by 
his sacrificial lamb. 

THE TRANSGRESSION 
Now, we will note carefully the transgression of 
the law of the garden, and its effect. 

God only asked them to observe one command- 
ment, and that for their best interest and highest 
good. In fact, all of their comfort, joy and peace; 
their earthly and heavenly interests; their physical 
and spiritual life, yea, all of their highest privileges 
and attainments in the Godward way hung on their 
obedience to this one commandment. How infinite 
the loss for a little momentary pleasure, if it might 
thus be called. 

Commanded to Abstain 

The commandment was not to render some diffi- 
cult service, but merely to abstain from something 
their pure hearts did not desire. 

How easy it seems it would have been even to 
have forgotten entirely about the forbidden fruit, 
with hearts that did not crave or desire it, and with 
so many rich delights and inexpressible pleasures in 
which they might freely indulge to their utmost sat- 






THREE GREAT FACTS 2/ 

isfaction. It is true of His precious will today. His 
saving grace removes the desire for sin, and in His 
service is great pleasure, and the fruit of His grace 
is hanging in luxurious quantities around the obedi- 
ent, to which they have access and may freely eat. 
The great task of all is to abstain from the for- 
bidden. 

The Approaching Moment 

But, alas ! one morning in the absence of God — 
though the garden seemed to be most resplendent in 
beauty; though the dampness of the night had moist- 
ened its flower-decked slopes, causing a going forth 
of a sweet fragrance of rarest quality; though the 
drops of dew as they hung upon the vernal bows, 
glistening in the fresh morning sunlight, seemed to 
cast forth a halo of rays that arched the garden like 
a bow of promise — evil approached. 

Is it not like the Infinite Father, in a moment of 
great trial and danger, to throw around His endan- 
gered ones an unusual amount of grace and glory ? 
Truly, this was a moment in which earth's greatest 
crisis was pending. The decision of His free-moral 
beings in this hour meant the preservation or de- 
struction of His created universe; the life or death 
of the ones who must make the decision between 
right and wrong. The wholq universe is involved ; 
heaven's interests are at stake; the life of His hu- 
man people is at stake; yea, even the life of the Son 
of God is involved in the decision of this supreme 



2 g THREE GREAT FACTS 

moment If the human judgment decides against 
the will of God, the paradise is lost, the earth ruined. 
Great national interests many times have hung, as 
it were, by a frail thread. The nation fairly stood 
upon tiptoe of anxiety, waiting to hear the decision 
of the council which would determine the result. 
But no such interest, no such weal or woe, no such 
loss or gain ever hung upon the decision of human 
judgment. No doubt God on some secret viewpoint 
watched, while angels and the host of heaven gazed 
to see what decisive action would be taken ; and hell s 
angry hosts stood in silence and breathless hope to 
hear the sad revolt of man, only to break forth in 
venomous rejoicing to hear the crash of God's cre- 
ated universe as the foundation of His government 
of peace and harmony gives way. The distant cry 
of dying mortals is heard, and in point of time, and 
process of the population of earth's vast fields, the 
death wail of all Adam's children yet unborn. For 
by the sin of one man (Adam) death passed upon 
all. 
The Crucial Moment 

The crucial moment has come ; Satan appears, but 
in! disguised form. He comes as an instructor and 
guide to better things, to a state more equal with 
God and more satisfactory. Oh ! beware, beware of 
teachers who bring you light on a way to better and 
higher attainments apart from God's way, who deny 
the scientific statement of God concerning the trans^ 



THREE GREAT FACTS 29 

gression. God said : "In the day that thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die." The devil said: 
"Thou shalt not surely die." He denied the effect of 
sin; hence the fact of sin. His agents are still de- 
nying it, but the awful fact still remains. 

The Deceiving Method 

He engaged the mind of the pure woman in con- 
sideration of the Divine command and the result 
of its violation. He inquired concerning their given 
liberty in the garden. This he did to find the place 
of attack at which he might advance his fallacious 
argument and foil his victim. It was through the 
mind he worked out his deadly plot. The greatest 
weapon Satan has is the human mind. By it he 
ruined the whole creation of God. He has used it to 
slay mankind since the moment of the fall. The 
present unprecedented war is due to the fact that the 
mind of its agitators is under the control of Satan. 
Christian, if you do not want to fall from grace, do 
not lend your mind to the enemy. Do not let him 
reason with it. If he gets it he will slay you with it. 
By gaining her attention and thought he succeeded 
in blinding her mind to the penalty of the law\ He 
made it to mean knowledge and equality with God 
instead of death. He strengthened his argument by 
saying: "God doth know — ye shall be as gods, 
knowing good and evil." The plural word "gods" 
refers to the two persons whom he is seeking to de- 



30 THREE GREAT FACTS 

ceive. That they, by eating of the forbidden fruit, 
may become gods, equal with God in knowledge and 
power. He succeeded in conceiving in their hearts 
the desire to arise to equality with God, as he him- 
self had once desired, and by it fell. He said : "I 
will be like unto the Most High; I will exalt my 
throne above the stars." Likeness to God, and equal 
with Him in power and authority. It seems the 
highest ambition of man has ever been to attain to 
highest rulership. This strong inclination of the 
human heart is its most dangerous weakness. By it 
Lucifer fell from highest state of angelic perfection. 
And by it Adam, the crowned prince and father-lord 
of the human race, fell to eternal loss of his kingdom 
and lordship, and thus ruined the fair Eden and the 
whole six thousand years' labor of God. Nations 
have fallen from national pride, honor and power 
through the kingly rule of one who claimed to rule 
by Divine authority, and confessed equal power 
with God. 

The' Kaiser of Germany has an idea in his mind 
that God has appointed him to rule the world, that 
he rules by Divine right. He has converted the 
mind of his people to the same idea, and the influence 
of it has caused the concentration of all his mighty 
human powers to one common center to effect this 
satanic idea. 
Resui/t of Sin Denied 

The enemy's statement was false and unscientific, 
It was not the correct result of the forbidden trans- 



THRE)E GREAT FACTS 3 1 

gression. Thousands today are accepting the en- 
emy's false and unphilosophical teaching. They are 
indulging in many things they say are educational, 
therefore they judge it right to do so; but the effect 
of a great percent thereof is death to the spiritual life 
and degrading to the moral. The mental may be de- 
veloped at the sacrifice of the spiritual life and the 
degradation of the moral. Much of the educational 
means used today is destructive to right and sound 
education. It disqualifies the student to use his ac- 
quired knowledge. Every man should think for 
himself . Reason alone would tell us that knowledge 
gained by violation of law is not profitable, and that 
by violation of law no man can be more like God. 
Sound education teaches us to observe all the laws 
concerning the three-fold interests of mankind : Di- 
vine, civil and natural. All are beneficial, if ob- 
served. All are destructive if violated. 

Fatal Decision 

The impression was made upon the mind of the 
pure woman. The greatest crisis in the course of 
time had arrived. The great hand of time had 
swept the dial of the created universe and had 
gathered into that supreme moment all the mortal 
and immortal interests of mankind. The powers 
that gathered in conflict in this supreme moment are 
beyond imagination. All of the whispering voices 
of the infernal hosts poured their entreaties into the 
minds of the ones who must make this most impor- 



32 THRE^ great facts 

tant decision, while no doubt heaven moved as a unit 
of influence to persuade to right decision. But, alas ! 
her judgment decided in favor of the new thought. 
If he had told her the fact of the result of the con- 
templated action, she would have fled from him or 
have scourged him with a righteous reprimanding 
voice for suggesting such an atrocious deed. But, 
beguiled of the actual fact, and not thinking perhaps 
of wilfully violating the law r , her mind being so filled 
with the new interpretation of the commandment, 
or the result of its violation, that it was knowledge 
and equality with God, and not death, she did not 
fear to disobey the Divine command. It was made 
reasonable and beneficial instead of unreasonable and 
destructive. It was good promised for the act of 
wrong. The devil not only denied the Divine stated 
effect of overstepping the legal measure, but emphat- 
ically declared it to be the only way to be equal with 
God, or to rise to higher attainments in life. Purity 
and virtue are more essential than knowledge gained 
by the loss thereof. They gained the knowledge 
promised them by the overt act, but they lost their 
Divine likeness and thus separated themselves dis- 
tinctly from God. Wisdom today, with many, is 
valued above purity and virtue. She confessed she 
was beguiled, deceived. But being deceived, she was 
not excusable; the awful effect of the deed was ac- 
cording to the Divine pronunciation. This princi- 
ple of justice and effect of the violation of Divine 
law will be executed through all of God's dealings 



THREE GREAT FACTS 33 

with mankind. The enemy is springing this death 
trap on the masses of this present time. It was a 
new idea to the pure woman in the garden. It was 
but theoretically explained to her, but the practical 
experience proved the theory to be fearfully false. 
The wisdom and knowledge which they lost was far 
superior to that which they gained. Their first wis- 
dom qualified them to comprehend perfectly the Di- 
vine will. It gave them easy access into the infinite 
mysteries of the God-head, but the wisdom which 
they gained was so far inferior that they could not 
understand God, neither know Him. "For man by 
wisdom (natural) knows not God." Christ was 
made unto us " wisdom." Divine wisdom is meant, 
or wisdom of Divine things. And only as we have 
Christ in our life can we understand the Divine will 
or discern spiritual things. 

Not Deceived as Eve 

No one since the Eden experience can be deceived 
by this satanic guile as was Eve. It was tested out 
and the actual fact revealed, that earthly wisdom and 
knowledge of right and wrong are not the likeness 
of God in which man was created; neither does it 
produce a fitness meet to fellowship with God. Man 
must possess Divine wisdom and purity of life. He 
must be in God and like God, that he may have unity 
with God. Unity with and likeness of God is spirit- 
ual, not mental. It is obtained by faith and not by 
culture and refinement. Culture and training will 



34 three: great eacts 

only develop the moral and mental elements of the 
being. It cannot develop the spiritual being of man, 
for the word of God declares all men are, as a result 
of the fall, spiritually dead, and therefore he cannot 
be cultured to spiritual life. 

Christ Must Speak 

The life-generating voice must speak, "Come 
forth." Whatsoever was lost through the fall can 
only be restored through the redemption. If culture 
and training will fit a soul to dwell in heaven with 
God, then Christ died in vain. We may remove 
every hindrance, take away the stone, but unless 
Christ speaks, the soul will remain spiritually dead. 

To teach that in man is a dormant germ of good- 
ness which has survived the fall, which may, through 
development and refinement, outgrow the moral bad- 
ness of man, and thus the badness wither and die and 
man become righteous through an evolutionary pro- 
cess, is to deny the effect of sin and charge God with 
falsehood; and, furthermore, deny the teaching of 
Christ, and the purpose for which He came into the 
world. "I am come that they might have life," John 
10 :io. "And this is the record, that God hath given 
to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He 
that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the 
Son of God hath not life," I John 5 :n, 12. "For 
if there had been a law given which could have given 
life, verily righteousness should have been by the 
law," Gal. 3:21. Here, you see, righteousness is 



THREE GREAT FACTS 35 

by the life of Christ within us, and not by the law. 
The law was our schoolmaster, our educator, but it 
could not educate into us righteousness or make us 
righteous, for righteousness is not legal education, or 
mere observance of the law, but life through Christ 
or Christ's life within us. 

All who trust in their education and religious 
training and refinement are not deceived as was Eve 
by satanic guile; they are openly and boldly defying 
the plain statements of Divine truth, and the demon- 
strated facts as shown in the transgression. What 
right has any one to claim eternal life and righteous- 
ness through any other method than that which God 
declared ? 

According to the word of inspiration, man is dead 
in sin, spiritually dead, and reason alone could only 
rightly conclude that the only hope of the soul must 
come from a law that can give life. "For the law of 
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death," Rom. 8:2. "If any 
man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 
The influence here is that man naturally has not the 
Spirit of Christ. This being true, how can there be 
a Christian or Christ-like life developed where there 
is no Christ Spirit? Again, what right have we to 
claim a Christ-like spirit apart from the Divine 
method by which it may be received ? 



36 three great facts 

False Claims 

All these claims of spiritual life, righteousness 
and right relationship to God apart from the Divine 
plan, are but a positive denial of the fact and conse- 
quence of sin. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
Ezek. 18:4. The effect of every wrong deed upon 
the moral and spiritual nature of man will be as God 
has declared. "Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : 
for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap," Gal. 6:7. This is a philosophical statement. 
The principles of cause and effect support it. The 
nature of every seed is produced in its generated 
product. The harvest will be like the seed sown. 

From Iniquity Unto Iniquity 

Seed always in its generative process multiplies 
itself many fold. The effect of sin is always much 
greater than the sin committed. He that soweth to 
the flesh (the carnal nature) shall of the flesh, in a 
reactionary effect, corrupt himself, or the effect of 
his sin is self-corruption. Hence, you see that there 
is a work of degeneracy going on continually in the 
life of the sinner. This increasing moral badness or 
continual falling proves the fact of an inward cor- 
rupting cause which leads from bad to worse, from 
corruption to corruption. There is no limit to the 
downward trend of a soul thus lost from God and 
light. Corruption multiplied by corruption sinks far 
beyond the reach of light. How awful the thought 



THREE GREAT FACTS 37 

■ — a soul once fitted to dwell with God in light, now 
fitted to dwell with demons and the damned in end- 
less night ! Oh, sinner ! each moment thou art chang- 
ing and conforming to the character of hell. Your 
good intentions and desires, that feeble hope of 
some day becoming a Christian, are weakening and 
decaying under the evil passions of your nature and 
resistance of the Divine will. The evil force of your 
nature some moment will crowd you over the bound- 
ary and limit of Divine mercy and Infinite love, 
alas ! to drift on and on to the furthest point from 
God, heaven and light. 

Science declares the illuminous circle around the 
sun to be a mass of particles which have broken off 
of the great shining planet, which circle with its re- 
volving motion and drawing power; and at times 
great numbers of these planetary particles fall back 
into the sun, while other particles recede farther and 
farther, till they sweep beyond its centripetal power 
and fall to some unknown destiny, never to return. 

Broken Ofe by Sin 

Man was thus created to dwell in God, but was 
broken off by sin and has circled far from Him. 
Hence, the co-operative powers of the redemption 
plan are to bring us back to the place from whence 
we fell, to restore us to God and His likeness ; but to 
resist His drawing power is to recede away till you 
break beyond the reach of His redeeming mercy and 
fall to the regions of the damned. 



38 three great facts 

Changed Vision 

Let us note still further the garden experience. 
The woman, under the incubus of the new interpre- 
tation of the effect of disobedience, began to see that 
the fruit was good for food. Why should she care 
for or desire this food, when God's exuberant hand 
had superabundantly supplied their every need? An 
earthly care is creeping upon her. The fact of a 
change of heart desire is appearing. That natural 
unconscious trust in God is weakening. No want of 
food had ever appealed to her mind before. 

A lessening of the spiritual and an increasing of 
the natural is going on in her heart. Self-responsi- 
bility and care are coming on as her trust in God 
weakens. A selfish desire and lust for the forbidden 
is expressed in these words: "It is good for food." 
A^n evil nature is already conceived in her heart 
which desires evil, a nature to which sin is good and 
enjoyable. She is now fitted to have pleasure in un- 
righteousness, 11 Thess. 2:12. No such desire 
could come from a pure heart. Purity and right 
could not call evil or the Divine forbidden good. 
Righteousness and unrighteousness, merit and de- 
merit, have no fellowship. The established laws or 
principles of distinction between adverse elements 
support this fact. 

Second. "It is pleasant to the eye/' It is the first 
time the beauty of natural things appealed to her. 
Her vision is now perverted. Even the Divine for- 



THRK£ GRKAT FACTS 39 

bidden things now appear beautiful, pleasant, pleas- 
ing and agreeable. What is it but the appearing of 
an awful fact;*a change taking place in the heart; 
a corrupting of desire; a transferring of affection 
and admiration from God to natural and sinful 
things. The beauty of God, holiness and heavenly 
things is fading; the interest in spiritual things is 
dying as the vision dims in the death struggle. 
What evidence could be furnished that would be 
more convincing or valid? Science stands agreed. 
The effect reveals the nature of the cause. Hence 
an aw T ful change from purity to impurity, righteous- 
ness to unrighteousness, is evidenced. 

Third. "A tree to be desired." Notice the word 
"desired." Alas ! Satan has accomplished his desired 
end ; a desire for the Divine forbidden things is con- 
ceived in the heart. He knew he could not induce 
them to indulge in the forbidden unless first he could 
get a desire for it conceived in them, for their pure 
nature could not desire it. The enemy recognized 
the fixed principles of cause and effect. He was wise 
enough to know that the cause must be wrong to pro- 
duce a wrong effect. He must get their will under 
the power of an unrighteous principle before he 
could persuade them to commit the evil act. 

An evil nature agreeable to wrong was first con- 
ceived, then came the desire for the wrong, then the 
will consented to the desire, then the act was com- 
mitted. "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant 



40 THREE GREAT FACTS 

of sin," John 8:34. That is, his will, his persona? 
self, is under the operating force of the indwelling 
principle of sin, which rules his heaft life,— like the 
man in the seventh chapter of Romans. He willed 
to do good, but found himself helpless under the con- 
trolling power of an operating law of sin which ruled 
in his members, which also held him in bondage to 
sin. Here, you see, by the Adamic transgression an 
operative law of sin was established in the very life 
principle of man which operates in his members, 
producing evil action. A base principle now rules 
the heart's affections and desires. A desire to be 
vase rather than godly. Wisdom gained at the fear- 
ful price of innocence, purity, heaven and God- 
Surely this dark principle conducive of evil action 
and desires did not come from Him who created 
them in His image. Surely that inbreathed likeness 
of God could not desire that which is opposed to the 
Divine will. We conclude that sin is an indwelling 
operative principle in the heart; conducive of evil de- 
sires, motives and aspirations. The first generative 
principle was holy. It could only produce pure mo- 
tives and desires. The first was of God. The sec- 
ond is of the devil. 

Still more evident is the fact when we see the hand 
reaching for the forbidden fruit, a visible wrong act 
produced by an invisible wrong motive and the result 
is spiritual death. 



three great facts 41 

The Approach oe God 

In the cool of the day, God as usual appeared in 
the garden, but the man and the woman were not in 
their former place of meeting. This is very strange ; 
they were never absent from meeting before. 

Being interested in them, as the evening shades 
were falling, God calls it, tender words, "Adam, 
where art thou?" But no responding voice is heard 
from the absent ones. 

But why this silent absence? Why do they not 
respond to the voice of Him who has a right to know 
their whereabouts and the cause of their absence? 
If sin is not a reality or the effect of the transgres- 
sion a real fact in their life, why should they thus 
hide from God? The critic says it was condemna- 
tion charged upon them by the verdict of their own 
judgment. They were ashamed because they had 
dishonored the supreme Sovereign. They had ig- 
nored His right to be obeyed. But if sin is not a 
conscious reality, why should they be thus ashamed ? 
If they were conscious of shame, they truly were 
equally as conscious of the cause of their shame. If 
there were no change in their nature as a matter of 
fact, from their former state, why should they fear 
the presence of God? Their fear did not come from 
the thought of punishment for the deed, but from the 
fact of their nakedness. Adam said, "I was afraid 
because I was naked." 



42 three great facts 

Not Death by Execution of Law 

We are not to understand that the death spoken 
of in connection with the violation of the command- 
ment is a penalty to be inflicted by judicial authority. 
It is the result of the violation of the law upon the 
violator. Like a man putting a pistol to his temple 
and pulling the trigger. The result is death. The 
result of violating the Divine law was death, not to 
be, again let me say, inflicted upon them by the hand 
of justice, but as a result of their own act. For illus- 
tration — A person takes some deadly poison and dies 
as a result. It is an awful crime, but not punishable 
by law, for the one who committed the crime is dead. 

The instant Adam and Eve committed the sin they 
died spiritually, and the only possible hope for them 
was to accept pardon and life upon the basis of Di- 
vine provision. They were underneath the penalty 
of the law, which is death. There was no judicial 
course to pursue to inflict the penalty upon them. 

The only course of procedure to take in behalf of 
the man and the woman who are dead, who by the 
act of their own judgment executed the penalty of 
the Divine law upon their own life, is by legal pro- 
ceedings to provide a way by which to restore the life 
and lift the penalty without affecting the moral recti- 
tude of the Divine character or ignoring His right 
to be obeyed. The strength of the law is its penalty ; 
to remove the penalty is to destroy its governmental 
force. 



THREE GREAT FACTS 43 

Again, a man might take the life of another, and 
yet by some course of legal proceeding be pardoned 
and thus escape the penalty of death. But the Eden 
tragedy was a double suicide. God could not recall 
the verdict; no counter-move could be taken; the 
sentence was executed; the criminals w r ere dead 
(spiritually). Hence you see, there is no hope for 
the sinner except on the basis of substitution, not a 
revoking of the sentence, but a shifting of the guilt 
and penalty to one not guilty. 

The unalterable law of God must hold him under 
itsi righteous verdict forever unless a legal act may 
be taken which will defend the right of justice to 
punish, yet procure a lifting of the guilt and penalty 
from the guilty, thus freeing the sinner without in- 
validating the Divine law. "That He might be just, 
and the justifier of him which believeth." 

Every act of mercy must be approved by justice. 
Law and grace are cooperative in the redemptive plan. 
Mercy procured a basis upon which pardon could 
be granted the sinner without setting aside the law. 
Grace supports every claim of the Divine law and 
seeks to bring everything back to its righteous stand- 
ard. Christ came that through His redeeming grace 
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. 
Rom. 8 14. 

Evidence of Spiritual Death 

The evidence that they died spiritually at the mo- 
ment to transgression is, first, "The eyes of them 



44 THREE GREAT FACTS 

both were opened." They at once saw themselves 
in a different state. There has been up till this time 
a Divine covering of purity and innocency. A man- 
tle of glory hung over them. 

Their hearts and minds being pure, their vision 
was pure. "Unto the pure all things are pure," Tit. 
i :i5, i. e., in their proper state and purpose. If the 
effect of the transgression was not a reality or a con- 
scious fact, why do they now see things in another 
light ? Why do they not see themselves as before ? 

Second. "They knew that they were naked." 
Alas ! their new vision is not imaginary, but a fearful 
fact is revealed. The Divine covering of purity, the 
mantle of glory has been removed. Robe in scrip- 
ture language means righteousness. Righteousness 
is a state or quality of life, free from guilt and sin, 
purity of life. Righteousness will robe herself in 
her own likeness. When she dies her robe will fall 
with her. Unrighteousness will appear in its own 
expression. God made man out of the dust, but He 
filled and clothed him with His own likeness. Divine 
life and purity. When the Divine inbreathed life 
was slain, the outward robe or likeness disappeared, 
and their shameful moral nakedness was seen. The 
New Testament terms support this idea. "Put on 
Christ." "Put on the new man." "But put ye on the 
Lord Jesus Christ." — The grammar of it is the same 
as putting on a garment. Hence Christ fills within 
and covers without. 



THRKS GR£AT FACTS 45 

Under the awful sense of their shame and naked- 
ness they, when hearing His voice walking in the 
garden, hid themselves. 

This change of nature, this loss of Divine fitness 
and agreeableness with God, broke all fellowship 
and harmony between them. 

An impassable gulf now divides between them and 
their Creator. Not a separation by law only, but a 
gulf dividing between two distinct states or condi- 
tions, with which there can be no union eternally, 
unless the fallen by some means may be restored to 
the Divine likeness, made again to harmonize in na- 
ture with God. 

Being conscious of two grave facts, they begin to 
cover their shame, i. They knew they were naked. 
2. They knew they must meet God. How could ev- 
idence be given more strongly to convince of or 
prove of the fact of indwelling sin? Every act con- 
firms it. 

Ignore; Divine: Authority 

They ignore Divine authority. God calls, but 
they refuse to answer. The unrighteous feel no obli- 
gation to answer the Divine call or obey His law. 
Adam no doubt realized that some day he must meet 
God, but ignoring the call of God, he continued his 
effort to prepare himself. Here the deceitfulness of 
the heart is clearly manifested. He endeavors to re- 
cover himself from the effect of his sin, that he 
may appear before God as though he had done no 



46 THREE GREAT FACTS 

wrong. Job confirms this statement. "If I covered 
my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity 
in my bosom," Job 31 133. Here is a striking rev- 
elation of the awful depth to which man fell from 
the image of God. If w T e grant the Eden story as 
truth, there is no argument that will stand against 
the terrible fact of sin. If we deny it as a truth, we 
place the origin of man in the realm of the unknown. 
We have too much respect for our dead ancestors 
and living relation, to say nothing about throwing 
such a blasphemous insult into the face of Deity, 
than to even honor with a doubt the silly, bogus hy- 
pothesis of evolution. 

Vision of Sin 

It was the first vision of sin and moral corruption 
their pure eyes had ever witnessed. How dreadful 
and sickening is the sight, but infinitely more dread- 
ful the fact. Who can imagine the distress of mind 
in that hour ; guilty and fallen from purity and vir- 
tue; naked and no robe with which to cover their 
moral shame; and the liability of God appearing at 
any moment. What would they not gladly give if 
they had not done the deed. A thousand worlds as 
fair as Eden would seem but a small gift if they 
could be again as before. No recourse to be taken, 
unclothed and guilty, they must face their God. 
Sorrow and tears bring no relief; regret and re- 
morse do not atone; streams of burning tears, with 



THREE GREAT FACTS 47 

groans and deepest sighs or vows from hearts sin- 
cere cannot remove the guilt nor change the fact. 

Their hearts were not hardened by sin nor their 
conscience seared. It was the first time the cruel 
scourge of condemnation had smitten their tender 
conscience. 

No one but the Infinite One Himself could see or 
comprehend the height and depth and length and 
breadth of the effect of this act of disobedience. It 
was the opening of a corrupt fountain which will 
pour forth its deadly current, spreading world-wide, 
and course down through the length of time. 

Let the skeptic, infidel and critic tell us from 
whence all the cruelty, crime, sin, immorality and 
degradation came, if it is not the result of the 
Adamic choice. Tell us, Mr. Critic, why is it that a 
people deprived of ennobling influences and means 
of culture and refinement never rise to the plane of 
civilization, never discover the higher ideals of life, 
nor outgrow their dark swaddling band of supersti- 
tion and fear? Their ideas of life and its privileges, 
attainments and hopes never develop nor lift them 
out of their infant blindness and superstition. 

The light of passing centuries is not sufficient to 
sunder the galling shackles of traditional blindness, 
or to dethrone their pantheistic gods. 

If man is naturally good and possessed with a be- 
neficent nature, or if there is within an operative law 
which is constantly developing a higher state of life 



48 THR££ GRSAT FACTS 

and intellectuality, why does not this inner operative 
principle of goodness remove the moral badness and 
develop a more noble character ? The most cultured 
and refined, and even most religious in the days of 
Christ's earthly walk, manifested the most cruel and 
vicious nature. 

If that inbreathed Divine life principle which 
caused man to become a living soul (a God-conscious 
being) was not destroyed or corrupted by the 
Adamic sin, why is not the disposition of every man 
the same as before the fall? If by the act of violat- 
ing the legal measure man's nature was not changed, 
he still would be holy ; every motive would be pure ; 
perfect love would be the ruling principle of every 
heart. 

Man has corrupted God's whole creation. Every- 
thing He pronounced good has been corrupted and 
disordered. Things of demoralizing tendency, that 
lead to badness and wrong, are but the product of 
the carnal mind ; all have been invented and arranged 
to satisfy and entertain the carnal desires of the hu- 
man heart. 

Bkfors the) Bar 

Finally the dreaded moment came. They are ar- 
raigned before the bar of God, trembling with fear 
and shame. What will the verdict be? Adam's 
confession is, "I heard Thy voice in the garden, and 
I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid my- 
self." The cause of their fear was their unfitness to 



THR3E GREAT FACTS 49 

stand before God. There was a fearful, conscious 
change in their moral and spiritual life. It is an un- 
mistakable evidence of the fact of sin. 

A judgment trial is on, and apparently there was 
no one to plead their case. It was indeed a dark 
moment, a dreadful hour, in which their destiny 
must be fixed, either for weal or woe. But the Di- 
vine Creator had made provisions in case such a ca- 
lamity as this should come. Light from behind the 
screen flashes in crimson shade upon the altar of 
sacrifice. God takes the position of high-priest, 
sheds the blood of beasts for their atonement, and 
with the skins He covers their nakedness ; the inno- 
cent suffering for the guilty. The substitutionary 
atonement is revealed. In all the shadowy scenes of 
the sacrificial Lamb of God there is not found a 
more adequate figure, which more adequately sets 
forth the redemption of man through Christ. 

First Offering for Sin 

There are three points here which we wish the 
reader to note : Life, blood, and robe, or covering. 
The life of the substitute had to be taken for the life 
of the one slain by sin. He died that we might live. 
The blood was shed to atone for sin and cleanse 
from its pollution. "Without the shedding of blood 
is no remission." The skins of the beasts were 
used with which to cover their nakedness. "Put ye 
on the Lord Jesus Christ." — "For as many of us as 
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ/ ' 



50 THREE GREAT FACTS 

The actions of God here in the' Eden palace are 
positive evidences of the fact of sin. The life taken, 
the blood shed, the robe of skin, prove the death, 
guilt, and nakedness of the sinner. 

The Trim, 

First question : "Who told thee that thou wast 
naked?" Had some angel told a forbidden secret? 
No ! No one could have told them this before they 
sinned, for they were covered with a robe of purity. 
They were clothed with the righteousness of God. 
Whatever their manner of living may have been, this 
nakedness is not to be understood as an uncovering 
of the body. It was a moral change that appeared. 
The mantle of Divine purity and likeness of God 
was removed. 

Second question: "Hast thou eaten of the tree, 
whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not 
eat?" This question, like a sharp probe, reached the 
secret of the trouble. Adam, with much hesitation, 
begins with words, divided with deep sighs, to make 
confession. He confessed in detail. "The woman 
whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of 
the tree and I did eat." "And the Lord God said 
unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?" 
"And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me and 
I did eat." This is a clear and perfect confession, a 
stating of all the details of the case. 

It is possible, however, that they might have 
thought to lessen their guilt by referring to the man- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 5 I 

ner in which they were induced to eat of the forbid- 
den fruit, but it is not probable. True, they mani- 
fested a fearful spirit of deception in trying to hide 
their crime and its effect; but in this case they are 
before God, and a full confession must be made. 

The fact that God called for them is evidence that 
they w r ere out of His will. And to get out of His 
will is to transgress His law. "For sin is the trans- 
gression of the law." "The wages of sin is death." 
"In the day that though eatest therof thou shalt 
surely die." Death is the loss of life, and the loss 
of all relative connection with life. God is life. Sin 
is death. Hence, you see, by their sin all relation to 
life and God was severed. We do not marvel that 
they withdrew from the former meeting place and 
were loath to respond to the Divine call. 

Every phase of the Eden experience and trial evi- 
dences the fearful fact of sin. 

Sacrifice for Sin 

May we pause a moment here and note more fully 
the sacrifice for sin? 

To lift a death penalty from the guilty, the sub- 
stitute must die. And as the guilty was dead as a 
result of sin, the death of the substitute must have 
provided life for the guilty dead. The beast as a 
sacrifice could not impart life, but prefigured one 
who was coming to bring life. "I am come that th 
might have life." (Christ.) The fact that the sub- 
stitute must die to meet the need of the guilty and 



- 2 THREE GREAT FACTS 

satisfy the righteous claims of justice, proves the 
fact of spiritual death; for if the effect of sin is not 
death, then the substitute need not have died. 
"Because/' saith Paul, "we thus judge, that if one 
died for all, then were all dead, II Cor. 5 114. What- 
ever the law requires of the substitute, proves the 
state of the guilty. 

If a person takes his own life there is no hope for 
that person. He must remain dead to all eternity, 
unless there can be found a substitute that can atone 
for his crime, restore him to life, and cleanse him 
from the pollution of sin. The substitute, in order 
to meet the approval of justice, must restore him 
whole again. Now, the sacrifice is itself valid evi- 
dence of the reality of sin. "But in those sacrifices 
there is a remembrance again made of sins every 
year," Heb. 10:3. 

Death is just as absolutely a fact as is life. Death 
is a change of state and place, and such change can- 
not be without consciousness thereof. Hence, it 
must be a real fact. 

Clothed with Skin of Beast 

Life had to be taken to get the robe with which to 
cover their shame. The robe is furnished by the 
sacrifice. Christ died to redeem us from sin and re- 
robe us with His own likeness. We are all as mor- 
ally naked as was Adam. He lost the Divine robe 
of purity, and all his children are born without it ; we 
must come to the second Adam (Christ) to find it. 



THREE GREAT FACTS 53 

We must put off the old man (Adamic nature) and 
put on the new man (Christ's nature). If Adam 
was ashamed and unfit to stand in the presence of 
God without the robe of Divine purity, so likewise 
shall we be. 

If there was any change or loss in the moral char- 
acter, no matter in what degree, it must be a real 
fact. If it is not a fact, there is no loss or change 
in the moral state or nature. Hence there is no such 
thing as sin. 

Cause of Sin 

Sin can be no less than an act against the Divine 
law, and there must be, therefore, a cause for such 
act. It is either caused by external influences or by 
an internal principle or desire. In the case of Eve 
there was no act of sin until there was first an in- 
ward desire. 

The desire was not, however, the sin itself, but an 
attribute of it — the manifest evidence of the fact of 
sin, as an inward operative principle — a nature of 
such character as to desire wrong. Wrong desires 
wrong. Purity desires purity. 

There must be two opposite elements to prove the 
existence of either. If there was no darkness we 
could not prove the existence of light. To prove 
what light is we must have the darkness in contrast. 

If there were no death we could not explain life. 
These opposites, rightousness and unrighteousness, 
purity and impurity, etc., are facts against facts. 



54 thr££ grsat facts 

Inhsrit^d Depravity 

Great effort is being put forth these days to prove 
the child does not inherit a sinful nature from the 
parent; that every person becomes depraved in na- 
ture as a result of their own sin ; that sin is commit- 
ted by the influence of environment and not by an 
inherited principle. 

In the dimness of human reasoning appears a 
form as that of an angel of light. It presumes to 
guide to better things, as when in disguised form it 
appeared in the morning dawn of fair Eden. Its 
object then was to destroy God's created ones. Its 
object now is to keep them from getting back to God. 
You see, they teach that children, especially those 
born to< Christian parents, may be thus trained in the 
ethics of moral and spiritual life, that they need not 
to be born of the Spirit. Thus it denies the declara- 
tion of Christ as it denied the declaration of God in 
the garden. Christ says, "Ye must be born again." 

Now let us look for the evidences furnished us in 
the Word of God. 

"And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because 
she was the mother of all living," And yet no chil- 
dren were born. It means she is the mother of all 
that shall ever live — the fountain head of the entire 
human race. Hence, the fountain head being cor- 
rupted by sin, the whole outflow will also be corrupt. 

Rom. 3 :23, according to best authority, properly 
translated would read: "All sinned" — all sinned 



THREE GREAT FACTS 55 

seminally in Adam. " Where fore, as by one man 
sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so 
death passed upon all men, for that all sinned." 
Rom. 5 :i2. Margin: "In whom all sinned." No- 
tice the word "passed." "Verb — transitive." Verb 
— something affirmed of some person. An act of a 
person which produces a real effect. "Transitive" — 
effective by transference. Hence, you see, death by 
Adam's sin passed, i. e., was transferred to his off- 
spring, all men. "In Adam all die." Note the ex- 
pression, "In Adam." When Adam sinned, the in- 
ward spiritual man died, hence that spiritual gener- 
ative law was destroyed so that they could not bring- 
forth spiritual children, thus the spiritual life of all 
the human family died in Adam. 

Sin in Chiud 

The child is not born spiritual. "That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh." The child is born totally 
depraved, but owing to its innocence it is not held 
accountable, and owing to the fact that it has never 
sinned it is not guilty; therefore the atonement 
makes provision for its eternal life. The child is 
born in the kingdom provisionally, but when it ar- 
rives at the age of accountability it, by the choice 
of its own heart's desire, steps out into sin, therefore 
he forfeits his childhood hope. 

Let us advance a little further on this thought. II 
Cor. 5 :i4 : "We thus judge, that if one died for all, 
then were all dead." He died for all that should be 



56 THR££ GR£AT FACTS 

born after His death as truly as He died for those 
born before. Thus it is clear that God counts all 
that ever shall be born, dead in Adam. The provi- 
sion itself is evidence of the soul need. If the pro- 
vision is life, the need of the soul is life. And if all 
must be saved through this Divine provision of life, 
past, present and future, the only conclusion is, all 
that will ever be born will be, in Adam, dead, and 
must be made alive in Christ. 

The death of the body is separation of the body 
from soul and spirit. Spiritual death is separation 
of soul and spirit from God. 

The pure God-life was lost by sin. They sacri- 
ficed virtue and purity, the life of God with God, for 
the knowledge of its value. We must have the life- 
likeness of God to live the life of God with God. 

We live by Him, in Him and with Him. To live 
in Him and with Him we must be like Him. The 
loss of His inward life-likeness separates us dis- 
tinctly from Him, and will separate us from Him 
eternally if not restored. 

Two Offerings 

In the case of Cain and Abel there are two great 
facts revealed. One acknowledges inborn sin or 
spiritual death, and the other denies it. Abel's offer- 
ing evidences his faith in the Divine provision, also 
the knowledge of his need. The offering of the lamb 
is a prevailing argument that he knew he was under 
the death penalty of sin, and that nothing but the 



three: great facts 57 

sacrifice of life, the shedding of blood, could atone. 
The death of the lamb proves the fact of the death 
of the guilty. 

Conscience a Witness 

He was conscious of his guilt or he could not have 
been conscious that his guilt was removed. Guilt 
must be a conscious fact or the peace of pardon could 
not be known. Sin, therefore, must be a reality, or 
there could be no such thing as guilt. Guilt is the 
effect of sin in the conscience. If guilt is a fact, sin 
therefore must be a fact. 

Cain, for a sacrifice, brought the first fruit of the 
ground. His offering was a mere act of religious 
service, wholly destitute of any adequate sense of 
sin. In fact, it was an argument against actual or 
original sin — a mere formal service. No repentance 
manifested or sin acknowledged. Such religion de- 
nies the effect of the fall, and consequently the blood 
of atonement. Abel's lamb revealed the unsound- 
ness and unprofitableness of Cain's religious ideas, 
and that his offering was unmeritorious. 

Merit of Offering 

Abel's offering merited the gracious pardoning 
love of God. By faith he offered unto God an offer- 
ing that met the approval of justice, and brought into 
his heart the virtue of redeeming grace. His offer- 
ing was the act of faith in Christ which brought the 
witness and joy to his heart of sins forgiven. 



58 thrkk grkat facts 

Carnal R^b^llion Against 
th£ Divine Will 

God being unable to approve Cain's offering, it 
being in no sense a sin offering, appeared unto him, 
and reasoned with him concerning his offering. He 
said : "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accept- 
ed?" He evidently at least felt in his heart that God 
had respect of persons, but God informed him that 
if he had done well, He would have accepted his of- 
fering as freely as that of his brother. The respect 
was not in the persons, but the offerings. It is not 
sincerity in the heart of the one who presumes to 
worship God, that merits His favor, but a recogni- 
tion of the Divine requirements, and a perfect com- 
pliance with the same. 

"Sin lieth at the door." According to best author- 
ity the Hebrew word "sin" implies both "sin" and 
"sin-offering." Hence it is clear that God informed 
Cain that he was a sinner, and that a sin-offering- 
was provided for him. "At the door" — within his 
reach. No excuse for not being forgiven. He 
passed by the sin-offering on his way to worship; 
it was by his tent door. Infinite mercy has provided 
a sin-offering for every man, and has placed it at the 
door of his own dwelling. Surely no man can pass 
out and in by this offering all his days and not notice 
it. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." 

Cain evidently pleaded his own ideas concerning 
his need. He argued against God's statement con- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 59 

cerning his sinful nature, and also the Divine remedy 
for its removal. 

The Fact of Sin Demonstrated 

He insisted on having his own way, rejecting both 
the words of God and the counsel and entreaties of 
his righteous brother, also the evidence of the ap- 
proval of God upon his brother's offering, which was 
the true sign of acceptable worship and true religion. 
He, having resisted God and God having departed 
from him, approached his brother, no doubt, upon 
the subject of sacrifice; and as they reasoned to- 
gether he evidently still refused to acknowledge the 
sinfulness of his heart and the need of such a sacri- 
fice as God had pronounced ; he became so angry that 
he slew his righteous brother. What clearer evi- 
dence of inbred sin can be furnished than this? 
Who cannot see the manifest inward stirring of a 
nature, cruel, hateful, and rebellious, defiance of 
God flashing from his eyes; the reddening of his 
cheeks as that iniquitous passion of his fallen na- 
ture flamed, then whitening to a deathly shade as it 
reached the degree of murderous outbreak? Can a 
man be so grossly ignorant as to deny the fact of an 
operating principle within the heart of man, virulent 
in character, which would commit such a crime with- 
out the slightest provocation? Both God and his 
brother labored with him for his highest good and 
eternal welfare. Note the further evidence fur- 
nished in this narrative. Here the nature of the 



6o THRKK grsat FACTS 

father is manifest in the son. As Adam covered his 
sin, so also Cain covers his. "The heart is deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked/' Jer. 
17:9; — so wicked as to murder his brother, and 
boldly meet God and deny any knowledge of it. 
Here is a well-confirmed fact that sin displaces God 
from the entire life, and disregards His right to be 
obeyed. Hence sin itself argues against the modern 
theory of "the Divine in man." It disclaims all re- 
lationship to God, and holds no regard whatever to 
Divine authority. Thus inspiration declares : "The 
carnal mind is enmity against God : for it is not sub- 
ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." 
Rom. 8-7. 

Opposed to God and Man 

We will pause here a moment and note briefly the 
direct opposition of the carnal nature to both God 
and man. Sin is always and forever the opposite of 
righteousness, as death is forever the opposite to life. 
God is righteousness and life. Sin is unrighteous- 
ness and death. Sin forms a law of eternal separa- 
tion from God, therefore all who remain under it 
can never be united to God nor come into His king- 
dom. God is holy. His kingdom is a kingdom of 
righteousness. Sin is unholy and its deeds, desires 
and purposes are unrighteous. 

Sin, as shown in the case of Cain, causes man to 
act upon his wrong judgment and choose loss rather 
than profit, wrong rather than right, death rather 



THR£K GRSAT FACTS 6 I 

than life. Sin, by ten thousand evidences, is shown 
to be deteriorating, ruinous to the soul, mind and 
body in all its effects. It has no right to citizenship 
in the kingdom of God. It is an alien in nature and 
an enemy in mind, and is forever condemned by the 
law of God. The verdict of the Divine law to be ex- 
ecuted upon it is destruction. It is a nature un- 
tameable, unculturable and untransformable. It is 
not religious in itself, but dresses itself in the relig- 
ious training of the intellectual man, or a mere imi- 
tation garb of piety, that it might remain unnoticed 
in the sanctuary of the human heart. 

Deceit fulness is evidently sin's strongest faculty 
with which it works destruction. One evidence of 
its desperate wickedness is, it misrepresents all its 
claims. It never appears in its own likeness nor rep- 
resents its business in its true character or purpose. 
All its mighty achievements are accomplished under 
misrepresentation and falsehood. The author of 
sin, by sin in its most deceiving form, succeeded in 
bringing about the destruction of all but eight per- 
sons in Noah's day, by propagating a false religion 
under the disguise of truth. 

Before the intellectual bar it was reasonable and 
right. Inspiration sounds a note of warning to all 
who are thus deceived. "There is a way that seem- 
eth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the 
ways of death." 



62 THRKE GRSAT FACTS 

Satan knows that a redemption has been provided 
with which souls are freed from his power. It is 
his chief business to furnish all men with a substitute 
with which to blind and mislead, one that is reason- 
able and practical, promising the same hope in the 
end, and yet does not presently interfere with the 
chief desires, pleasures and aims of the fallen nature. 

His only hope of victory is to allure away from 
the cross. The cross stands for his present and eter- 
nal defeat. He does not oppose so much the mental 
acceptance of Christ, but seeks to prevent the accept- 
ance of the faith that appropriates Christ to the soul 
as life and righteousness. Christ is of no profit to 
the human race unless He, the great remedy for sin, 
is applied. It is the removal of sin from the heart 
that Satan seeks to prevent. 

He well-nigh captured the whole world in Noah's 
day with a religion which allowed sin to remain in 
the heart, and is advancing the same today with 
alarming success. 

Christ, looking down through the sweep of time, 
saw the fearful condition of the people in general, 
religious and non-religious, at the end of the age, 
and made clear announcement of it. "As it was in 
the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the 
Son of Man." Paul also makes a clear announce- 
ment of the same. "Having a form of godliness, but 
denying the power thereof." A religion bearing the 
name of Christ, but denying that the blood is effica- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 63 

cious, i. e., able to do the work for which it was 
shed — cleanse from all sin. 

There can he no opposition to the conclusion that 
such views of Christ and His redemptive work are 
in the most strict sense opposed to Christ and the hu- 
man need. Such misrepresent Christ in His Divine 
purpose and His redemptive relation to man. A 
theory that denies the effect of Christ's death makes 
Him of no profit or benefit to the soul, 

Lost Vision 

The fact of sin is seen in its effect upon the spirit- 
ual vision. The whole vision is lost. The whole 
spiritual world is under total eclipse. Were it not 
that God through Christ commanded the light to 
shine out of darkness, the whole race would have 
perished in the night of spiritual darkness and death. 
True, man has with diligent search and research dis- 
covered many wonderful things and brought out 
much truth which has enriched the world and en- 
larged its vision of the natural or physical creation 
of God, which serves to establish the being or exist- 
ence of God. Many seem to think that to know God 
means nothing more than to prove His existence by 
His material creation, logically concluding that 
where there is a thing created there must be a cre- 
ator, judging also that this stupendous earthly ball, 
being governed and controlled by such a uniformity 
of laws and harmony of elements, and all being so 
perfectly adapted to the needs of human life that it 



64 THREE GREAT FACTS 

could not be a spontaneous production of some self- 
producing cause. The very character of things ar- 
gues irresistibly for a pre-existing being of infinite 
wisdom and power, whose mighty hand wrought and 
established the earth's being. 

From this view point men seem to recognize God 
as they view Him clothed in His creating garb, but 
since He has dressed Himself in human flesh com- 
paratively few recognize Him. As science can only 
tread the material path and analyze its constructive 
elements and determine their generating cause, it 
therefore fails to find the God-man of Calvary. 

Christ's redemptive work on Calvary wrought no 
present change in the material world, It only pro- 
vides for it, but the entire effect thereof is spiritual, 
save what effect the regeneration and sanctification 
of the spirit has upon the material. "Men by wis- 
dom know not God." 

Since man lost God by sin, he can only know him 
again by His redemption. To know God is life, 
and life is vision. There can be no spiritual vision 
where there is no spiritual life. "But the natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for 
they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know 
them, because they are spiritually discerned/' I 
Cor. 2 114. 
Known as Redeemer 

When man lost God in the beginning he knew 
Him as his creator. When he finds Him again, he 
will know Him as his Redeemer. 



THR£E GR£AT FACTS 65 

Man in his sinful blindness seeks to find God as 
Creator. He should seek to find Him as his 
Redeemer; for only thus can God be found. 

The universal Fatherhood of God was lost by sin. 
He is now provisionally a universal Redeemer. No 
sinner addressing God should call him Father. 
Christ reveals this fact when in His process of re- 
demption on the cross. When He reached the place 
of the sinners' separation from God by sin, He cried 
out: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
Me?" In this awful moment when the final blow 
was struck which crushed the serpent head, He felt 
in the keenest sense the Father's forsaking, the hid- 
ing of the Father's face. "He tasted death for 
every man." Sin is death and death is separation. 
He took the sinner's place. He was made sin for 
us. The law of substitution demanded that He take 
the place of the sinner. It was in this sense He felt 
the terrible sting of broken Divine relation or separa- 
tion from God the Father. 

It is the effort of the enemy to blind the sinner to 
this fact by teaching that God is his Father, and 
therefore, he need not fear eternal punishment for 
our Heavenly Father is very merciful. Such teach- 
ing denies the effect of sin. It denies the fact of lost 
Divine relationship by sin. Jesus used the term, 
"I know you not." This implies non-relationship 
and non-acquaintance. It denies any relative con- 
nection whatever. Though in that great day they 



66 thrke: gr£at facts 

may claim relation with Christ, yet He will shake 
His head and exclaim, "I know you not." 

Broad minded religious libertines of today with 
their theological, theosophical, and pantheistical 
ideas compounded into a religious faith, and with 
their pantographical minds, are giving us a more 
liberal view of the deific personality of God, than 
those who have kept within the circle of inspiration, 
who have viewed Him in the mirror of His own in- 
spired Word. 

This elementary class in their mighty exhumation 
from the earth, and their reckless diving into the 
sea of natural things are bringing up wonderful frag- 
mentary particles of the wrecked creation. Yet it is 
astonishing that so few, who in their geological ex- 
pedition to the morning rise of the earth, and who 
have traced it in its course of development and evo- 
lution down through the centuries, have not discov- 
ered the bloody tracks of incarnate Deity on the 
rocky brow of Golgotha. 

He who enters the door of inspiration will see God 
standing on the top of His wrecked creation, i. 
On Sinai laying the foundation of Divine govern- 
ment. A basis on which to rebuild and reconstruct 
His ruined creation. 2. On Calvary setting in mo- 
tion and making effective His stupendous plan by 
charging it with the destructive and constructive 
power of supreme Deity, making it death to death 
and life from the dead. 



three great facts 6? 

Needed Vision 

What the sin-blinded race needs is not a vision 
of God as Creator, but as Redeemer, not an Eden 
fair with all its beauty and perfection of a world 
newly born, not of man in pristine purity and per- 
fection — for dark the day and dire the event when 
man by sin was compelled to leave the Eden home 
and its gates were closed with watch and flaming- 
sword — but of the Lamb of God that taketh away 
the sin of the world. Point them to that crimson 
spectacle of Calvary, the God of Creation, the author 
of the law suffering the penalty of His own law that 
He might free the guilty and restore His fallen 
creation to His favor and likeness. Thank God! 
we do not have to find Him by tracing His dim foot 
prints or finger marks on the bosom of His creation, 
which are well nigh effaced by the march of ages 
and the degenerating elements of sin. We only need 
to lift our eyes to that cross-crowned hill, the sacred 
mound of the universe, the magnetic pole of memory 
to which all minds turn in heaven, earth and hell, 
the venerated spot in all the universe of God, Heaven 
crowned with victor's praise ; while angels tread in 
soft respect, devils frown with fiendish gaze, and 
foolish men ignore. 

Religious Deception 

Many claim religious rightness with God or Di- 
vine relationship, even against every evidence to the 



68 THRKE GRSAT FACTS 

contrary. Sound learning frowns at the unreason- 
ableness of their profession. The principle of cause 
and effect tears off the mask and reveals its insidious 
falsehood. A religious sinner is a living contradic- 
tion. True religion denotes piety, Godly fear, a 
system of faith and service. "Religious" denotes a 
righteous person of saintly manners, God-fearing 
and God-like. 

"Sinner" : An unrighteous person, an unbeliever, 
corrupt and wicked in heart, unconverted. 

There are established principles of cause and ef- 
fect which we dare not disregard; to do so would 
leave us without any evidences with which to prove 
the character or nature of any conducive cause. It 
is by the effect that the nature of any cause is deter- 
mined. 

The Bible and true science agree. The plan of 
redemption is controlled by these working princi- 
ples, cause and effect. 

Law of G:£n£ration 

The law of generation is a Divine, fixed law. 
The thing generated invariably takes the nature of 
the progenitor. Every creature thus begets its own 
likeness. 

Hence, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." 
The word "of" gives the source of his origin or gen- 
eration : "of the devil," proves that he "committeth 
sin." Being of the devil, therefore, he is possessed 
with a devil-like nature or spirit, which controls the 



THREE GREAT FACTS 69 

will, mind and affections. It is this Satanic operative 
principle within which causes man to commit sin. ^ 

Jesus said, "Ye are of your father, the devil.' 
Some may ask, How is it that the sinner is a child 
of the devil? For an answer to this question we 
call attention to man's beginning. 

Reproduce Likeness 

God created man with the power to reproduce his 
own likeness, and also the Divine likeness according 
as God had designed His likeness in man, but by sin 
the spiritual likeness or nature was destroyed, and 
in its stead the satanic nature took possession. 
Therefore man, instead of imparting to his offspring 
the spirtual likeness or nature of God, imparts the 
satanic nature. 

If the sinner, as Christ has declared, is a child of 
the devil, this relationship must be wrought in the 
process of conception and birth of the child. This 
being true, it is therefore clear that the indwelling 
principle of sin is inherited, inborn, and that it is a 
direct result of father Adam's disobedience. 

No one is a sinner because he sins; he sins be- 
cause he is sinful, and as long as he continues to sin 
he proves himself to be a child of the devil. 

The same principle of self-operation and demon- 
stration is found to be in effect in the life of the 
Christian or child of God. 

We have seen how the self-operative principle of 
sin in the life of the unregenerate or sinner com- 



JO THREE GRKAT FACTS 

pletely controls the will, desires and affections, and 
spreads its controlling influence over the whole 
"membral" system, see Rom. 7 123. 

Now notice the complete change which is wrought 
by the Spirit in the process of regeneration in the 
life of the regenerate: "Whosoever is born of God 
doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in 
him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God/' 
I John 3 :g. The important word in this text is the 
word "of" — conceived of God; brought into spirit- 
ual being by the generating power of the Spirit. 
This being true, you see, the regenerate takes of the 
nature of God — see II Pet. 1 14. Hence he cannot 
sin ; for God's seed remainetfrin him. "Cannot sin." 
This not only implies, but plainly asserts, that an in- 
ward operative life principle begotten of God 
through the Spirit, takes an inward master position 
and effectively controls the will, desires and affec- 
tions and the entire "membral" system ; not by force, 
but by consent. 

SelF-du plication 

The inner conscious being or life principle dupli- 
cates its nature in its actions, desires, affections and 
motives. "Keep thine heart with all diligence, for 
out of it are the issues of life." 

The issue of the heart agrees with the heart-life. 
If the heart is right, the issue or manifestation will 
be right. God has treated the great question of sin, 
its cause and effect in the life of His fallen race, 



three great facts 71 

also the cause and effect of redemption, in a logical 
and scientific. way, so that all who are spiritual may 
be able to, by the fruit, judge the heart life — "By 
their fruits ye shall know them." The fruit is al- 
ways the visible evidence of the nature of the tree. 
"Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of this- 
tles?" "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more 
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me," Rom. 7 120. 
Here the fact of sin as an indwelling, will-control- 
ling, sin-committing principle is authenticated by 
the Word of inspiration. It is not I, but sin. Note 
the manner of expression : "If I do — it is not I — 
but sin that dwelleth in me." This is plain, that the 
"I," or person, is compelled to do wrong by an inner 
operative wrong motive. 

Evidenced Heart Condition 

Now as we advance toward the conclusion of this 
chapter let us note carefully that the outward mo- 
tions, the visible demonstrations of the inner life, 
are accepted in the Scripture as decisive evidence as 
to the condition or state of the heart. 

"He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His 
commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in 
him," I John 2 14. To know God is life. To say, 
"I know Him," is to say, "I am born of God, hence 
His life is within me." The inner life being of God, 
it therefore cannot sin against God. You see, the 
evidence that a soul is born of God is the keeping of 



*]2 THREE GREAT FACTS 

His commandments. The breaking of them refutes 
the claim, "I know Him." 

"The wages of sin is death" (spiritual). Note 
again. To know God is life. Sin is the transgres- 
sion of the law. The effect of sin is death. Hence, 
you see, the apostle's conclusion is logical and con- 
clusive. He says, "The truth is not in him." Christ 
is truth ; He is life. We must have Him to enable 
us to keep the commandments. The violation of 
them is sure evidence that he who does so is spirit- 
ually dead. Therefore, his claims of life and knowl- 
edge of God are false. 

Disordered by Sin 

If God is not the author of confusion, everything 
when it left His creative hand must have been a 
unit of harmony and perfection. The universe must 
have moved without friction or jar. The construc- 
tive elements were perfectly poised, its system of op- 
eration was so perfectly arranged that its govern- 
mental laws blended into one great controlling force. 
The atmosphere was perfectly compounded and 
properly adapted to the needs of man, and man was 
made to harmonize with God. Every created ele- 
ment, thing or intelligence moved in harmony with 
the will of the Creator. 

Is the world today as it was when God finished 
and approved it ? Is man today as he was when God 
looked upon him as the visible image of the God- 
head, the expression of the three-in-one ? Has there 



THREE GREAT FACTS 73 

not been a disturbance in the elements and order of 
things ? Has there not been a fearful change in the 
nature of man and his disposition toward God? Do 
we not hear the beings who were created in His 
image now cursing Him and taking His sacred name 
in vain? Have they not refused to render unto Him 
the loving obedience due Him? Were they not cre- 
ated for His glory, but do they now glorify Him? 
What part has He in the program of their life? If 
sin is not a real fact, an awful reality, would not all 
things remain today as they were when the great 
Creator pronounced them good ? 

To deny the fact of sin and its ruinous effect is to 
deny that God created all things perfect, and thus 
make Him the author of imperfection and confu- 
sion. And as He pronounced all things good, it 
would accuse Him of approving that which is op- 
posed to perfection and harmony. 

If we are to adopt the idea that God only created 
the protoplasm from which the world system and its 
inhabitants have germinated and developed, such an 
idea would support the hypothesis of evolution, 
which the voice of inspiration positively refutes : 
"By whom He created all things ;" "and by Him 
(Christ) all things were made, and without Him 
there was nothing made that was made;" "and all 
things were created for His glory/' 

The last quotation supports our idea that in the 
genesis of all things all things were pure. They 



74 THREE GREAT FACTS 

were the effect of a pure cause — God : "For by Him, 
and through Him, and to Him are all things." 

Every act of God must defend and manifest His 
power, wisdom and holiness. "A kingdom divided 
against itself cannot stand." If God would create 
elements opposed to His own character and interest, 
He would destroy His own kingdom. God is holy, 
holiness is harmony, harmony is unity, unity is one- 
ness, oneness is peace. All the opposite to these 
cometh of evil. 

Science Opposed 

Science is opposed to the idea of one cause pro- 
ducing an effect contrary to its own nature. Hence, 
you see, if God is the author of all things, all things 
must have been holy in the moment of their origin. 

If there has been a change in the nature and order 
of things, the cause of the change can be no less than 
a positive fact. If the change is a fact, the cause is 
also a fact, and the cause is clearly comprehended 
by its fearful results. 

Surely no one in this Holy Ghost dispensation, 
under the unsurpassed illumination of truth and dif- 
fusion of knowledge, can deny the awful fact that 
there is an active evil principle or spirit moving in 
and through the lives of men, which is opposed to 
culture, refinement, virtue, purity and life, an ele- 
ment which decays the foundation of moral and 
Christian civilization. An enemy of all good — the 
tracks of its unhallowed feet can be traced back to 



THREE GREAT FACTS 75 

fair Eden's gates, where it entered the household of 
the human family and breathed into their lives the 
germ of universal ruin and death. There he pulled 
the moral pillars from underneath God's great 
earthly superstructure; and with what terrific crash 
it fell! What ruin throughout God's whole uni- 
verse was wrought when the stays of moral princi- 
ples gave way ! When the Divine union broke, with 
what rapidity it sunk in orderless waste and confu- 
sion. The former svstem of communication with 
God was torn down. The former spiritual light sys- 
tem was deranged ; all spiritual light became extinct. 

Spiritual Blindness 

"Having the understanding darkened" — the spir- 
itual perception of God in His redemptive relation 
to man being so darkened, no correct understanding 
of spiritual things is possible. The more men strug- 
gle to find their way back to God, without having 
the spiritual life and light restored through Christ, 
the more hopelessly they become entangled in the 
jungles of imagination and false impressions. God 
says the sinner is in spiritual darkness or blindness. 
He also says the natural man, the sinner, cannot un- 
derstand or see the things of the Spirit, or spiritual 
things. Therefore, for any person whose spiritual 
life and vision has not been renewed through Christ, 
to claim a right understanding of the Divine will, 
and the things of the Spirit, is directly charging God 
with falsehood. Again, we understand the term, 



.. < 



yb THREE GREAT FACTS 

''Having the understanding darkened," to mean, 
"Being made ignorant." Sin destroyed the spiritual 
faculties of the soul, leaving man spiritually igno- 
rant, or entirely ignorant of spiritual things, as this 
text further proves. The question Nicodemus 
asked the Master supports this idea, — "How can 
these things be?" Though a man of rare intel- 
lectual brilliancy and learning, he had not even the 
slightest perception of the redeeming work of the 
spirit. In all the lines of learning he pursued to ac- 
quire his great knowledge, not a ray of spiritual light 
had flashed across his mind. The need of being 
born again had not been discovered in all his intel- 
lectual finding. Again, the question of Paul when 
overtaken by the Lord on his way to Damascus. 
"Who art thou, Lord?" Though a man of great 
learning and full of religious zeal, yet to him Christ 
was a perfect stranger, and as concerning the will of 
God in Christ, he knew absolutely nothing, and 
therefore inquired, "What will Thou have me do?" 

Alienation by Sin 

The apostle Paul, as seen in the text under consid- 
eration, in setting forth the effect of sin upon the 
soul, uses the word "alienated." The word "alien" 
means a foreigner or enemy. Alienated by sin; 
made a foreigner or enemy of God. All spiritual 
relationship to God was destroyed. Thus the sinner 
has no right to citizenship in the kingdom of God. 



THR££ GR£AT FACTS 77 

Note again, "Alienated from the life of God." — 
Separated from the life of God by a change of na- 
ture or loss of the God-life. 

Separation from God is not merely a going away 
from Him by a runaway act, a declining to obey His 
sovereign will, but a breaking of relationship, a loss 
of union due to the loss of the agreeable nature, or 
spirit. In some incomprehensible and unexplainable 
way the enemy, when he got the consent of the will 
and mind of the pure couple, succeeded in destroy- 
ing the God-likeness in their life, and in some un- 
explainable way a nature of pure enmity against 
God took possession and immediately became the 
controlling and operative principle or motive of their 
life. "The works of the flesh are manifest, which 
are these : adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciv- 
iousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, em- 
ulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envying, 
murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like/' 
How dreadful this malignant indwelling nature. 
There is no limit to its wicked possibilities if unhin- 
dered by Divine grace. Its purpose and work is to 
degenerate and degrade souls to an agreeableness 
with hell, as the Divine redemptive grace is to re- 
generate and restore man back to the heavenly fit- 
ness. 

No Union Without Change 

Thus it is clear that to be united to God again 
there must be a radical change in the heart life of 



78 -THREE GREAT FACTS 

the sinner. If the loss of the God-life, which was 
man's first likeness of God, broke all union and com- 
munion with Him, there can be no reunion nor re- 
storing of the Divine fellowship without the restor- 
ing of the Divine life. 

Now, if the inspired apostle uses the proper word 
here to describe the effect of sin, and our under- 
standing of the text is correct, and we believe it is, 
we are free to conclude that such a fearful and rad- 
ical change must be a most conscious reality. 

There are various reasons why such a change 
should be most consciously real : the breaking of re- 
lationship with God; the loss of joy and pleasure in 
His service ; no inward hungering and thirsting after 
God and truth; no heart seeking after heavenly 
things or pressing toward the mark of the high call- 
ing of God. These things serve as a tombstone; 
they mark the fact of spiritual death. The soul full 
of spiritual life seeks to acquire spiritual riches and 
attain to the highest privileges of Divine grace, as 
the natural man void of spiritual life seeks to ac- 
quire earthly wealth and attain to its highest posi- 
tions. 

Deadness op Conscience 

"Being past feeling/' Here we see another effect 
of sin, dreadful indeed; without feeling or con- 
science; no tenderness, pity or conscientious scru- 
ples ; hence, no reverence for God or man ; no sense 



THREE' GREAT FACTS 79 

of shame; a state in which an inward sense of re- 
morse or condemnation cannot be awakened. Who 
can even imagine the depth and length to which sin 
will take a soul that is void of feeling or conscience? 
The conscience feels largely through the sight and 
hearing. The sight of sorrow and suffering or the 
cry of distress awakens a tender and sympathetic 
feeling, the fruit of which is kindness. To be void 
of this noble and essential faculty is a state far be- 
low a beast. It is the last stage of soul consump- 
tion ; all the noble principles of life are consumed. 
All ambition and desire to arise to a higher plane 
of living and to attain to the sublime possibilities of 
the soul through Divine grace are surrendered, and 
a woeful plunge into the measureless depth of sin is 
made. 

Listen ! "Have given themselves over to work all 
uncleanness with greediness." All restraint of moral 
goodness is cast off by a voluntary act of the will. 
What else can this be but the perfection of sin. It is 
a full and complete surrender of the entire being to 
the will of Satan. It is now fitted to do all Satan 
requires. Fitted to agree with and have a hellish 
delight in all the elements of destruction. We only 
need to look upon the battlefield in Belgium and 
France to find support of this fearful fact. Who can 
look upon the stage of that bloody theatre of war 
and not be convinced of the fact of sin as an awful 
indwelling, dehumanizing, hell-fitting principle ?- 



8o THREE GREAT FACTS 

Space will not permit the use of all the Scripture 
evidences of the fact of sin, therefore one more con- 
sideration will be sufficient. 

A Remarkable Prayer 

When our blessed Lord spoke peace and liberty to 
the captive soul at the town of Gadara, the people 
hearing of the effect thereof upon the herd of swine 
which were feeding near a mountain, prayed Him to 
depart from their coast. There are several things 
suggested in this prayer that are worthy of note. 
First, the prayer shows how bitterly the carnal mind 
opposes Christ and how it prays against His true 
work of redemption, and seeks to thrust Him off the 
coast of every man's life. It is indeed "enmity 
against God." How oft even today is this prayer 
repeated. The Holy Spirit, many times as it were, 
has appeared on the shore of different communities, 
and has begun to operate the great Divine forces of 
redemption in liberating souls from the bondage of 
sin and clothe them in their right mind. Shouts of 
joy and praise from raptured hearts respond back to 
God for His unspeakable grace and love. Immedi- 
ately the world-loving, earth-seeking, soul-blinded 
people become fearful and pray to God to stop such 
fanatical demonstrations; the peace of the com- 
munity is being disturbed ; the long established equa- 
nimity and pleasant symmetrical condition of the 
churches is being painfully disrupted; commercial 



THREE GREAT EACTS 8l 

interests are now in great danger ; there is great com- 
motion in the town and community; they rush out 
to the place of meeting, and behold ! there sits at the 
feet of the preacher the worst character in the coun- 
try, clothed in his right mind, praising God. They 
concede it is a genuine case, but, two thousand hogs 
are dead ! A few more parallel cases and there will 
be no hogs left in the country. "And they prayed 
Him to depart out of their coast." The people of 
today condemn and reject the doctrine and faith that 
condemn their illegal commercial interest, immoral 
social relations and carnal pleasures. All crooked 
business is run by crooked men. A salvation that 
will straighten a crooked man will also straighten his 
business, correct his social relations, and put an end 
to his carnal pleasures. A doctrine that fails to teach 
this, and a faith that does not make it an actual fact 
in the individual life, is false and fatal. 

Blind to Opportunity 

It was the hour of their Divine visitation. God, 
clothed in human flesh, appeared on the coast. His 
great heart of love, burning with compassion, sought 
opportunity in which to reveal Himself to them as 
their present Saviour and Lord, and bestow upon 
them the riches of his Divine grace. He introduced 
Himself to them in the most intelligent way. He 
displayed openly His Deific personality. He cast the 
demons out of the man thus proving His superior- 



82 THR££ GR^AT FACTS 

ity over all spirits and powers. The demons begged' 
leave to go into the swine thus showing they could 
only go where He would permit. He also clothed 
the man in his right mind. In this He showed Him- 
self to be both Christ and God. He delivered the 
man from the power of Satan and gave him a new 
life, a right mind, and clothed him again with the 
robe of righteousness. Adam by sin put it off; God. 
through Christ puts it back on. 

Bund to Thsir N£e)d 

They saw the miracle wrought upon the man and 
pronounced it good, but there was nothing in Christ 
that appealed unto them. They felt no need of Him 
in their life. Thousands today grant that Christ 
does great things for many people, but feel no need 
of any such work wrought in them. Blind to the 
standard of Christian life and living, and totally 
ignorant of the means and process by which we be- 
come Christian or Christ-like. How dead the con- 
science, how dark the mind of a soul that cannot feel 
the broken fellowship and discord or see how unlike 
moral goodness and self-righteousness is to the life 
and righteousness of Christ. Reader, if you have 
not felt the life-giving, sin-removing and transform- 
ing power of Christ in your life you had better be 
concerned and seek Him at once, lest He depart: 
from your coast. 



THREE GREAT FACTS 83 

Self-Satisfied 

Sin effects a false ease or rest of mind and con- 
science. It destroys that faculty of the soul that 
discerns danger; what we might term, the soul's 
guard or watch. We have met many who firmly be- 
lieve in the eternal punishment of the wicked, and 
that if a person dies in sin such will be the inevitable 
eternal result, yet they live on in sin without fear. 
The terrible edicts of the Divine law may be thun- 
dered down upon their ear; the wretched state of an 
immortal soul engulfed beyond light and hope, suf- 
fering al the consciousness of what it means to be 
disconnected in an unchangeable relation to God and 
heaven, may be written before their sullen minds as 
with pen clipped in liquid fire, yet with all, with giddy 
smile and arrogant step, they pass out and on in the 
way of death. "There is no fear of God before their 
eyes." "Destruction and misery are in their ways." 
There is nothing worse than being deceived. Rest- 
ing upon a false hope ; finally, mocked expectations, 

"I'm satisfied," is the reply of many to the anxious 
inquirer who seeks to manifest his interest in their 
soul's welfare. Though their lives furnish no evi- 
dence of spiritual life and love for God and His 
truth, they are satisfied, and every complacent in the 
face of the lack of Bible evidence that they are truly 
saved. This is sure evidence that they are wanting 
in spiritual things ; for a soul that is in living touch 
with God craves Him more and more. 



84 THREE GREAT FACTS 

The visions that break upon the soul, which reveal 
greater and grander possible attainment in the un- 
searchable riches of Christ, wrap the soul in holy 
emotion and kindle burning desires for their 
realization. 

Woe to the Careless 

"Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion," at ease 
with such tremendous responsibilities. Zion : The 
great tower of light to which all eyes look for a true 
vision of the soul's hope; the spiritual center of all 
the Divine interest in the world; the earthly system 
through which the Divine interests are propagated. 
"Ease" here is used in the most natural sense : at ease 
in the midst of great responsibility and danger; at 
ease with a lost world depending on them for spirit- 
ual light and warning. It is indeed a most unhealthy 
state of mind, and can be no other than a fearful 
spiritual decay; a falling from grace and truth. It 
is the abounding of iniquity which is causing the love 
of many for Christ and the truth to wax cold. Hard- 
ened, not in a flowing condition. The love of Christ 
does not flow out through the church to the lost and 
needy world. It is only reasonable to conclude that 
if God does all His work for us by the motive of 
love, His love in us should be the motive by which all 
our work for Him should be done. The waxing cold 
is due to the loss of spiritual fire. When the fire 
goes out the syrup waxes cold. Let us pray earnestly 



THR££ GREAT FACTS 85 

that the Divine love in our hearts may not wax cold 
by the abounding iniquity of these perilous times, 
lest alas, we become a victim of that awful woe. Oh, 
for that love that makes the Divine interests my in- 
terests, His concern my concerns, His loss my loss, 
His gain my gain. 

Gsnerai, Efmxt of Sin 

In conclusion let us note briefly the general effect 
of sin. 1. The loss of the inward Divine purity by 
consenting to the enemy's false interpretation of the 
commandment through unbelief. They could not 
believe the enemy without disbelieving God. 2. A 
disobedient act through wrong desire. 3. Spiritual 
death. 4. Visible moral nakedness. 5. Conscious 
unfitness to meet God. 6. Pear. 7. Hiding from 
God. 8. Refusing to answer God. 9. Trying to 
deceive God by covering the effect of their sin. 10. 
Broken fellowship with God. See Gal. 5 119, 20, 21. 

Hence, you see, these manifest effects of sin prove 
not only the breaking of Divine union by spiritual 
death and destruction of associative fitness, but the 
indwelling of an evil principle conducive of moral 
badness, which also continues to operate men's lives 
in direct opposition to the Divine will. 



86 



THR£E GRDAT FACTS 



Oh, thou evil one, in thee the seed of sin was found, 
And by thee t'was sown in earth's fair field, while 
men in watchless ease reposed. 
T'was thee that sowed the seed of sin in hearts so 
pure and white, 
That broke the day and closed it with the night. 
T'was thee who hung the crepe of death on 
Eden's gate so fair. 
T'was thee who laid the first man low and left him 
in despair. 



THREE GREAT FACTS 87 



THE FACT OP REDEMPTION 

We will now proceed to establish our third fact, 
the fact of Redemption — its realistic effect upon the 
life of the redeemed: its transforming, reforming, 
conforming effect. 

Conscious as we are of our incompetency for such 
an undertaking, and our inadequate power of expres- 
sion to elucidate such a profound theme, and also 
our unworthiness to approach that sacred mound, 
even in thought, upon which our redemption plan 
was perfected, we dare not proceed only as we feel 
the leading of the Divine Spirit. Its sacredness 
solemnizes every thought and inspires with awe. Its 
infinite importance as respecting a lost people arrests 
every human energy and embarrasses every natural 
desire. We dare not speak where He is silent. To 
misrepresent His cause, is to rob Christ of souls and 
souls of Christ. Whatever is His loss is our loss. If 
there is a time in which grace is offered, and during 
which time it must be received we should be careful 
to put great emphasis on this fact. And further- 
more, if there is a transformation by grace which 
effects both the inner and outer life we should insist 
on penitent seeking until it is realized, not to seek 
feeling, no, not that, but to continue seeking, exer- 
cising faith, till faith appropriates grace. 

When we note the Divine carefulness and impera- 
tive regard for the types of Christ, His suffering on 



88 THREE GREAT FACTS 

the cross, we are convinced all this was done to fulfill 
a changeless theme. The carefulness of God in de- 
scribing the proper sacrifice, and His stern rebuke to 
those who disregarded such, rebukes all misrepre- 
sentation of Christ, and therefore demands that he 
who offers Christ to the world as a redeeming sacri- 
fice should know His character and the power of His 
redeeming grace. He who claims to know the remedy 
for sin should know the effect of the remedy upon 
the sinner. He w 7 ho declares a remedy for any dis- 
ease should also declare a cure of the disease by the 
remedy. If we deny the cure we make void the 
remedy. We are to accept the remedy now by faith ; 
if it does not effect a cure when taken, when will it? 
Let us bear these most important points in mind as 
we proceed. 

As wet contemplate the tragic scene in which the 
redemptive elements were being compounded into an 
adequate remedy for sin; when life and death, light 
and darkness, sin and holiness, mingled in a fearful 
and tremendous conflict, a duel conquest in which 
incarnate Deity crushed the power of the prince of 
darkness and declared freedom to all his captive 
host, we feel an awe of sacred quiet. It is the great 
throbbing center of all Divine feeling and love, 
sensation and sentiment. 

Redemption. 

Redemption can mean no less than a restoration 
to the first relationship with God in the most com- 



THRK£ GREAT FACTS S9 

plete sense ; restoring all the corresponding elements 
of the soul ; opening again to the realm of Deity all 
the primitive rights, possibilities and privileges, to a 
continuous rise to higher and grander attainments, 
deeper realizations and broader visions of God. 

Man was not created in the highest notch of de- 
velopment, possibility and privilege, but with a ca- 
pacity to ever increase in the knowledge of God. To 
limit the soul's privilege of ever rising God-ward in 
the realm of infinite Deity, is to limit the progress of 
heaven, and make common its gracious realities. 

If the redeemed soul may not ever continue to 
attain higher heights in God and broader visions of 
His infinite character, heaven's scenes will become 
common. The sublimity of heaven, its immortal 
joys, highest and grandest entertaining beauties will 
be the increasing vision of the ever unfolding mys- 
teries of God. 

Even now the joys of the redeemed increase and 
sometimes overflow at the breaking in of some new 
vision of our redeemed riches and possible attain- 
ments in His glorious grace. 

There is in every truly redeemed soul a constant 
craving or thirsting for more knowledge of God, for 
a clearer and more perfect understanding of His 
precious will. There is also an inward longing to 
draw closer and closer to His sweet presence. 

The impartation of the Divine nature to our 
hearts through Christ gives us in a limited measure 



90 THR££ GRSAT FACTS 

an experimental knowledge of the first relation of 
man to God. We have as yet seen but His lesser 
glory or felt but the first dripping of His grace. We 
see but the breaking of the perfect day when we shall 
stand complete in the presence of His glory with ex- 
ceeding joy. When the soul comes forth from spirit- 
ual death, renewed in His spiritual likeness, with a 
newness of life and living realities, with a sense of 
the Divine presence, and a peculiar new agreeable- 
ness with God, and on the other hand a conscious 
loss of all desire for and pleasure in things of earth, 
what joy sweps over the soul. It is the renewing of 
the first Divine relationship, a coming again into a 
living union with God reestablishment of that 
blessed communion and fellowship after the first 
order. 

As we view man in the image of God, we stand as 
it were like the seraphim in the presence of the Lord 
upon His throne, and our thoughts say, Holy, holv, 
holy." 

Truly man fell from his high state to a depth be- 
yond the reach of human thought or reason. Very 
faint are the traces of his first likeness. His high 
position and eminent character can scarcely be scaled 
by the highest imagination of human thought. 

We focus the rays of light from the inspired word 
upon this first God-man and yet but dimly do we see 
his glorious person. We will not know perfectly the 
glory in which he first appeared, or that superlative 



THREE GREAT FACTS 9 I 

unity and fellowship he enjoyed in person with God, 
until we stand in His likeness, and look upon our sec- 
ond Adam (Christ) in His glorified state. 

Restored to Adam's Likeness 

Christ came to redeem us back to our first de- 
signed likeness of God as in unfallen Adam. The 
word says, "We shall be like Him; (Christ) for we 
shall see Him as He is." Now, if Christ supercedes 
the first Adam which was human and divine, and as 
we see Him taking on our humanity as He enters the 
human realm, and is called the "second Adam," it is 
only reasonable that He bears the likeness of the first 
Adam. 

Christ did not come to change the race to some 
other order of beings, but to redeem it, and restore it 
back to God by restoring in us the God-likeness. 
Now we conclude that if we are to be restored to our 
first designed being, and also be in the likeness of 
Christ, that Christ is the image of the first Adam 
in his pristine state. We do not mean that Christ is 
no higher than the first Adam, or that He possesses 
no higher degree of Divinity ! No, not that. He is 
very God and very man. What we mean to say is, 
that He bears the image of the first Adam after 
which we will be fashioned. By this we can get a 
faint idea of the primitive likeness of our first par- 
ents. God's first plan did not fail; man failed, but 
God's plan or purpose for man is just the same. God 
made man holy, and His call to man, through Christ, 



92 THR££ GR£AT FACTS 

is to come back to holiness. "For God hath not called 
us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." I Thess. 
4:7. It was God's will for man when He created 
him and it is still His will. "This is the will of God, 
your sanctification." 1 Thess. 4:3. If God changes 
not, holiness is an eternal necessity. A condition less 
than holy can never agree with God, or have fellow- 
ship with Him. 

Now we believe the foregoing consideration is 
sufficient to support our following argument. 

Conscious Effect of Sin 

Please note again, Adam not only knew he had 
done wrong from the fact that that he was com- 
manded to abstain from the forbidden fruit, but was 
equally as conscious of the effect of his wrong deed. 
The effect of a wrong act many times is much 
greater than the act. The act of eating the forbid- 
den fruit was reasonably a very small thing. They 
could see no harm in eating of the fruit, other than, 
that God had commanded them not to do so. He 
told them they would die, but what was death ; they 
seemed to have no apprehension of the term. Death, 
until the transgression, was unknown in the Eden 
home. They had never seen the blight and ruin of 
this cruel enemy, or felt the pain and sorrow of 
broken ties of disturbed human order. But instantly, 
when the overt act was committed they felt the 
breaking of that inward Divine union. In the most 
fearful sense they felt the loss of their spiritual asso- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 93 

ciative oneness and fellowship with their Creator. 
Not only did their tender conscience evidence their 
wrong and the inward effect thereof, but they saw 
their moral nakedness, the outward effect of the in- 
ward loss of Divine purity. 

This nakedness reveals a state of unfitness to ap- 
proach the Divine presence; void of spiritual unity, 
distinctly opposed to God in nature and appearance. 
The Divine quality of life was lost, hence the Divine 
qualification. As the inner presence of God was de- 
stroyed, the outer appearance or likeness of God dis- 
appeared. The same is true in regard to sin. When 
sin is destroyed from the heart its outward appear- 
ance disappears. 

We have noted again the effect of sin that as we 
proceded to show the effect righteousness we may 
discern it more clearly. 

Conscious Effect 

It is universally granted that the incarnation and 
death of Christ was to procure upon a substitution- 
ary basis a living hope for all mankind, or a hope of 
living. "I come that ye might have life." Eternal 
life is provided for every man. Spiritual life is union 
with God through Christ. Spiritual death is separa- 
tion from God through sin. If sin is separation from 
God there can be no reunion with Him without the 
removal of sin; and if death is the loss of life, the 
lost life must be restored. And if thus the union 
between God and man was severed, to restore the 



94 THREE GREAT FACTS 

life will also restore the union. Union is oneness. 

It is usually granted that the incarnation and 
Hence, we through Christ, are made one with God. 
"That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in 
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in 
us:" 

He came to restore that which was lost. The fact 
that He came that we might have life, proves that 
by sin life was lost, that is, spiritual or Divine life. 
Now, if the loss of the spiritual life was a conscious 
loss, the restoring of the same must be equally con- 
scious. We must be conscious of the indwelling 
Spirit or we would not be conscious of His absence. 
We must be conscious of fellowship with God or we 
could not know when our fellowship was broken. 

Again, if we are conscious of the lack of fitness to 
approach the Divine presence, we must be equally as 
conscious of the fitness. 

The consciousness of a lack is the proof of the 
consciousness of the lack supplied; for if lack was 
suplied there would be no consciousness of the lack, 
or in other words, if any person thus has a conscious 
need and some one supplies that need, the supplying 
thereof removes the sense of the need. Hence, the 
supply is as sensibly real as was the need. 

Now in regard to the result of the fall. If all the 
Divine relationship, communication and fellowship, 
and all of the agreeableness between man and God 
was destroyed as a result of the death of the spirit- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 95 

ual man, we conclude, that to restore to life again in 
the fullest sense, as there is life and abundant life, its 
to restore all that was lost, in regard to relationship, 
fellowship and communion, also love, purity and 
affection. 

There was no desire for the opposite to God and 
holiness, no pleasure in sin, no disposition to obey, 
until the pure life was lost. Hence, to restore the 
pure life, is to remove the impure and thus remove 
the desire for a pleasure in sin, and the disposition to 
disobey the will of God. 

It is only logical to grant that all that was lost by 
the loss of life, will be restored by the restoring of 
the life. (Remember we are only considering now 
the spirit relation to God.) And if the result of the 
loss of spiritual life was a conscious fact, the result 
of the restoring of spiritual life will be equal in its 
reality. 

If fellowship with God, and the fitness to associate 
with Him depended wholly upon the life which He 
breathed into man, which life ) was lost by the fall, 
then let us say again, to restore that life all the lost 
fitness of the soul to dwell in the Divine presence 
will be restored. And we 'therefore conclude, that 
without this Divine nature or principle of life re- 
stored there can be no relationship with God, nor 
associative fitness. "Ye must be born again." Birth 
is life, and life is consciousness. That which is pro- 
duced must agree with that which produced it, as its 



g6 THRS£ GRKAT FACTS 

constructive elements are produced by the cause 
which gives it being. Therefore we must be born of 
God to have the life of God, and that life must agree 
with God because it is of God. 

A Nsw Creature 

It is unreasonable to supose that this marvelous 
spiritual birth, the result of which is a complete new 
creation, or a glorious passing from death unto life, 
in which all the former sins and sinful practice 
passes away, and a new life begins with new pure 
motives, desires, aspirations and hopes, can be ac- 
complished by the Holy Spirit without any con- 
sciousness thereof. 

If there is any change whatever in the life being, 
the fountain head, it must appear in the outflow, and 
must also be witnessed to by the conscience. For 
instance, if I by the act of Divine grace, through 
faith am made to love and enjoy the things I once 
hated and in which I had no pleasure, and hate the 
things I once loved and enjoyed, the change of love 
and pleasure from the one to the other is unmistak- 
able evidence of a positive change wrought in the 
heart; for there must be an agreeableness between 
the desire and the thing desired. Therefore, we thus 
reason, if I have a desire for anything that is wrong, 
the desire is as wrong as the thing desired. Desire 
is the appetite of the spirit. Hence, you see, if the 
desire is evil, the spirit is evil. Eve said, "A tree 
desired to make one wise/' She desired that which 



THREE GREAT FACTS 97 

was evil. Evil, because it was Divinely forbidden. 
Her heart life is now agreeable and fitted to enjoy all 
that is opposed to the will of God. Indeed, fitted to 
destruction ; for all that now seems desirous, pleas- 
ant and profitable is destructive and ruinous. The 
very life being itself is now so changed and alienated 
from the life of God that it has perfect agreement 
and fellowship with that which worketh death. 
They have entered an agreement with death and a 
league with hell, and for protection have made lies 
their refuge. Adam endeavored to hide behind the 
lie of his own covering. 

Can any doubt this awful change from purity to 
impurity, from perfection to imperfection, from a 
state of unity and fellowship with God to a state 
agreeable with sin, that it is fearfully real. If this 
then is true, can the change or transformation of the 
life back to an agreeable state and fitness to fellow- 
ship and enjoy the Divine presence be less than a 
grand reality. Reason alone would declare it im- 
possible for such a change to be made in the life of 
man without perfect knowledge thereof. However, 
redemption can do no less than change our nature or 
state of being from death to life, from impurity to 
purity, from enmity to love, from disobedience to 
obedience. 

Physical death breaks all relation with this world. 
Spiritual death breaks all relation with God. The 
biological definition of death is, "The falling out of 



98 THREE GREAT FACTS 

correspondence with environment ;" the breaking of 
all connection with surrounding elements. Hence, 
spiritual death breaks all corresponding relation with 
all the elements of God. This being true there must 
be a life imparted through the Spirit's work of re- 
generation that will have a living correspondence 
with God. 

Peace oe Pardon 

Abel came to the place of sacrifice with his offer- 
ing; he was conscious of his sin and guilt; he pre- 
pared it as Divinely required and prayed God to 
accept it as an offering or an atonement for his sin ; 
thus by faith he recognized the sacrificial Lamb of 
God, and accordingly received the gracious peace of 
pardon. He was just as conscious of the peace of 
pardon as he was of the guilt of sin. If a person 
knows he is guilty, he must just as assuredly know r 
when his guilt is removed. Guilt is soul-conscious- 
ness of the righteous condemnation of the law and 
fore-suffering of the penalty in anticipation of its 
execution. Peace is soul-consciousness of pardon 
and justification by grace through faith from the 
law and its penalty. Peace is the evidence of pardon. 
Many pray for forgiveness of sins, yet they deny 
the consciousness of pardon. They say we are to 
take it by faith, i. e., we are to believe He forgives 
on the authority of His word. We grant, however, 
that this is true, but it must be remembered that faith 
can only be effective as it rests upon its true basis. 



THREE GREAT FACTS 99 

Every promise of God is conditioned to us, or in 
other words, the grace of God is promised on condi- 
tions-; therefore faith cannot be effective until such 
conditions are fully met on the part of the recipient. 

It is impossible for a soul to believe it is pardoned 
before it really is. This would be believing against 
truth. However, faith may acknowledge the work 
before there is an inward consciousness of it, but 
when the proper required adjustments are made of 
the human will to the Divine will, faith will take 
hold, and the very instant faith touches the button, 
so to speak, the work is done. 

A very dangerous error has crept into the doctrine 
of salvation at this point. Many have been encour- 
aged and even persuaded to believe that they have 
the grace of salvation because they have asked and 
believed as they were taught. If there were no re- 
pentance, no surrender of the entire will to the 
Divine will required, then mere asking and believing 
might bring the grace of salvation at any time. But 
there must first be a self-action, assisted by the 
Spirit, which sets the purpose of the heart aright 
with all the Divine requirements and a yielding of 
the will to come under the control and leadership of 
the Holy Spirit. "For as many as are led by the 
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The Lord 
does not count the number of tears, nor note the tone 
of voice, or sentiment of the words of the penitent, 
but carefully observes the changing attitude of the 
heart. When He sees a complete reversal of desire 



ioo thr^e; grsat facts 

and will, a fixing of determination to serve God w T ith 
the whole mind and strength, His pardoning grace 
will be given. 

The eye of God was upon the people of Nineveh 
while Jonah thundered in their ears the announce- 
ment of the approaching judgment from the Al- 
mighty, and when He saw that they turned from 
their evil ways, He gave them mercy. Jonah 3 no. 
No forgiveness is possible without turning from evil. 
He pronounced His terrible edicts against Jonah that 
He might cause them to turn from evil. "It may be 
that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I 
purpose to do unto them ; that they may return every 
man from his evil way ; that I may forgive their in- 
iquity and their sin." Jer. 36 13. You see, they could 
not be forgiven until they turned from evil. There- 
fore, the Lord sought to bring about a turning of 
their hearts from evil to righteousness that He might 
forgive them. Another evidence of this fact is found 
in 2 Cor. 6:17. "Wherefore come out from among 
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch 
not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." Again 
you see, the will of God requires first an effective 
willingness which severs all relation with the un- 
righteous world, and a disuse of all that is unclean. 
That is, anything that would defile the body, mind or 
spirit, — 1 Thess. 5 123. Faith will not be effective, 
neither can the Lord honor our faith with redeeming 
grace until these requirements are fully met. 



THRKS GREAT FACTS IOI 

Rom. 5:1, gives a very clear and forceful evidence 
of the Divine reality of redeeming grace. "There- 
fore being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." It will be ob- 
served here from this text that peace is the effect of 
pardon, and pardon is the effect of faith. Hence, if 
faith procures pardon through Christ, peace will 
therefore be the evidence. There can be no pardon 
without the sweet sense of peace. Conscious guilt 
precedes pardon, and conscious peace follows it. 
"We have peace." 

I am guilty because I have actually sinned against 
the Divine will or law. Sin is a fearful fact. I have 
peace because I am actually forgiven by the act of 
Divine dealing through the virtue of Christ's re- 
deeming grace. Peace is a glorious fact. We con- 
clude, therefore, that if condemnation is the evidence 
of sins, as long as it remains, it is also the evidence 
that sins are not forgiven. "There is therefore now 
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," 
—Rom. 8:1. 

Peace With God 

Peace, however, springs from a deeper source 
than that of mere forgiveness of sins, as blessed as 
that is. As David said, "Blessed is he whose trans- 
gression is forgiven, whose sin is covered," Psa. 
32:1. The deeper source from whicfi peace springs 
is the new life conceived in the heart by the Spirit 
through the work of regeneration, which takes place 



102 THRS£ GREAT FACTS 

instantly at pardon. It is the peace of agreement 
with God in nature and mind. Every thought, de- 
sire, purpose and ambition is brought into coopera- 
tion and harmony with the will of God. It is a new 
life within, called the seed of God (offspring), I 
John 3 :g : not a subdued life, but a renewed life : 
not a service rendered under mere subjection, but of 
love and affection. The law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus which makes us free from the law of 
sin, — Rom. 8 :2. Thus it is a living law established 
upon Divine principles, the nature of which is op- 
posed to sin — "cannot sin," John 3 19, as long as we 
remain subject to the inner, righteous law of life. It 
is this law of life established upon the throne of the 
soul that delivers us from the law of sin, and if it is 
the establishment of this living law in the heart that 
delivers us from the law of sin, — as long as it re- 
mains established — it will continue to deliver us : 
that is, keep us from sin. Spiritual death is separa- 
tion from God and union with sin. Spiritual life is 
union with God and separation from sin. "Reckon 
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but 
alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord," 
Rom. 6:11. 

This Christian or Christ-life principle is wrought 
in the heart by the Spirit. It is the basis of Christian 
experience, and the foundation upon which Christian 
character is established. "I will put my laws into 
their hearts, and in their minds will I write them," 
Heb. 10:16. Therefore, you see, it is Christ's law 



THREE GREAT FACTS IO3 

of life or living law put within by the work of re- 
deeming grace, so that our very life is made to agree 
with the law of God. "That the righteousness of the 
law might be fulfilled in us," Rom. 8 14. 

And still peace has another tributary which adds 
to its blessedness and renders it more perfect. As 
we have seen that peace springs from a life of agree- 
ableness and union with God, we wish you to note 
that all the appetites and legitimate desire of the re- 
deemed soul are abundantly supplied in Him. "But 
my God shall supply all your need according to His 
riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19. 

Creatures of intelligence must have means of en- 
tertainment The mind is ever active and must be 
occupied in some line of thought They are crea- 
tures of pleasure and must have something to enjoy. 
And as the life is pure the means of entertainment 
and pleasure must agree with the life. The thing 
desired and the desire must agree in character. Any- 
thing that does not agree is repugnant. But we find 
in Him all the soul's needs and desires fully met. 
For He "hath given unto us all things that pertain 
unto life and godliness," 2 Pet 1 13. "And ye are 
complete in Him," Col. 2:10. Thank God! It is a 
complete life; there is nothing lacking. He is my 
life, my joy, my pleasure, my entertainment, my all. 
This is peace indeed. 



104 thr3£ grsat facts 

The Opened Way 

After our justification unto life, and peace relation 
with God, we have an opened way into a fuller and 
more complete unity and oneness with God ; unto a 
more perfect correspondence with His nature; a 
deeper sense of fellowship because of a more perfect 
relationship. "By whom also we have access by faith 
into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope 
of the glory of God," Rom. 5 :2. In the order of the 
first tabernacle there were two altars, the brazen and 
the golden. The sacrifice or atonement was made 
upon the brazen altar. The blood of that sacrifice 
was sprinkled by the high priest upon the golden 
altar which was located behind the second vail, in 
the most holy place. The sacrifice upon the brazen 
altar was to procure pardon; the blood upon the 
golden altar was for cleansing. There is no sacrifice 
made on the golden altar ; for there are no sins to be 
atoned for. They were all removed at the brazen 
altar. Gold represents purity or holiness, the blood 
for cleansing. "The blood cleanses from all sin." — 
makes holy. Hence you see, it is by the work 
wrought at the brazen altar, which gives us the 
peace of pardon, that also gives us access into the 
most holy place, or into the fullness of His redeem- 
ing grace. The apostle called it "The grace wherein 
we stand." Thess. 3:13. The establishment of the 
heart in holiness. All earthly or carnal inclina- 
tions being removed from the heart, there is a per- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 105 

feet coherence of all the soul elements to the Divine 
will, so reconciled in one through Christ's redeem- 
ing grace, that looking forward to the unveiling of 
His glory in the fullest sense, there is great re- 
joicing. 

Conscious Fitness 

Now if this soul fitness and adaptability to the ele- 
ments of Divine glory is not a conscious reality there 
can be no rejoicing. A person who knows he is 
guilty of sin cannot look forward to the unveiling of 
His glorious person with joy. The word says, unto 
those who know not God and obey not the gospel, He 
will reveal Himself in flaming fire and vengeance. 
The joy springs from the consciousness of a soul 
fitness to enjoy His glory. Man was first created to 
dwell in the presence of His glory. His state of being 
before the fall was perfectly adapted to that Divine 
element. Christ came to reconcile us unto Himself, 
that He might present us "faultless before the pres- 
ence of His glory with exceeding joy," Jude 24, 
"Rejoice" means to feel joyful. Hence, joy is feel- 
ing, and if feeling we ought to know something 
about it. Rejoice also means "Triumph." This full- 
ness of grace, or grace wherein we stand, gives soul 
triumph over all its opposing elements with such con- 
scious assurance of final triumph that it rejoices in 
the glory of its final victory beforehand. Rejoice 
also means "Delight." Here we reach the point 
where the will of the redeemed and the Divine will 



106 THREE GREAT FACTS 

blend into one. As the Psalmist has said, "I delight to 
do thy will, O God," so the soul's relationship to God 
is so perfectly restored that all its obligations to the 
Divine will become a delight and a source of great 
joy and highest pleasure. Is this too strong? We 
think not ; for Christ came to redeem us back to God. 
To do this, the lost relationship must be fully re- 
stored. The finite correspondence with the Infinite 
must be reestablished. 

Bible Evidence 

Let us note carefully a few texts in which tfie pro- 
found eternal purpose of God in Christ is revealed. 

"Father, sanctify them — that they all may be one ; 
as thou Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they 
also may be one in Us," John 17 :2i. It will be seen 
in this quotation that the effect of sanctification is 
oneness with one another and with the eternal "US," 
or God-head. In the beginning God said, "Let 'US' 
make man in our own image." So man was made in 
the image of "US." And Jesus prayed for our sanc- 
tification, saying "that they may be one in US." So 
you see it is God's plan through Christ's redeeming 
grace to restore us to His likeness. And anything 
else than this would not admit of fellowship with 
Him. "Having made peace through the blood of 
His cross," Col. 1 :2c Peace here has a much deep- 
er and broader meaning than that of a clear con- 
science; it comprehends the state of the soul in its 
final perfection. The purposed end of Christ's re- 



THREE GREAT FACTS IO7 

deeming work ; as will be seen in the following por- 
tion of the verse: "by Him to reconcile all things 
unto Himself." Here you see, "Himself" is the ob- 
ject to which He is to reconcile all things. "Recon- 
cile," to be brought to agreement, or union. God 
was the pattern after which man was made in the be- 
ginning, and it is clearly evident that it is still His 
purpose to make Him again in His likeness. Every 
discordance, or contrariety of qualities, or inharmon- 
ious elements must be finally purged out and all 
things be brought to a unit of harmony with the Re- 
demer Himself. 

This glorious hope of being like Him appears 
again in the first chapter of Ephesians, verses 3,4; 
"Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in 
heavenly places in Christ; According as He hath 
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the 
world, that we should be holy and without blame be- 
fore Him in love." The apostle Paul in this note of 
praise which he ascribes unto the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, in a most eloquent style flashes before 
us one of the most brilliant scenes of the Divine plan, 
as fulfilled in Christ. His vision spans over four 
thousand years, and rests upon two great pillars 
which support the Divine will concerning His cre- 
ated people, both in creation and redemption. He 
shows how the first purpose of God for man was car- 
ried into effect again through Christ. "According 
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation 



108 THR££ GR^AT FACTS 

of the world." — "Lie not one to another, seeing that 
ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And 
have put on the new man, which is renewed in 
knowledge after the image of Him that created 
him," Col. 3 19, 10. By the act of sin Adam put off 
the new man, the man of the image of God, and the 
man after satan's image, enmity and wickedness, was 
put on, called the old man, or carnal nature. But 
through faith in the redemption of Christ the old 
man is put off, and the new man, after the image of 
Christ is put on. The grammar of the term used 
here is the same as putting off a garment. We are 
commanded in Eph. 4:22, to put off the old man, 
and whatever we are commanded to do, it is possible 
for us to do. Notice the completeness of the work 
of grace as taught in this peculiar term. When I put 
off my coat it is off just as completely as though it 
had never been on. When I put on my coat it is on 
just as completely as though it had never been off. 
This shows the completeness of the removal of sin, 
and the completeness of the renewal of life. Reason 
alone teaches us that redemption must remove all 
the effect of sin, and restore all that was lost by it. 

Again in Paul's letter to Titus a foundation stone 
supporting this grand truth of perfect restoration to 
the likeness of God is firmly laid in the word of in- 
spiration: Titus 2:14, "Who gave Himself for us, 
that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of 
good works." Here you see, Christ is the standard 



THREE GREAT FACTS IO9 

or test quality of life to which all must be made to 
harmonize and agree. We are to be purified unto 
His own likeness. Yes, till we all come to the meas- 
ure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Eph. 
4:13. The grand work of purification and confor- 
mation must be accomplished in this present world. 
It is while we walk in the light that the blood 
cleanses from all sin, I John 1:17. It is while we are 
beholding Him with the eye of faith as our fountain 
for uncleanness, our uttermost Saviour, that we are 
changed into the same image by the Spirit of the 
Lord, 2 Cor. 3 :i8. "For whom He did foreknow, 
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the 
image of His Son," Rom. 8 129. As David said, "I 
shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness," 
Psa. 17:15. "But we know that, when He shall ap- 
pear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as 
He is," I John 3 :2. 

Now we believe that this is sufficient evidence to 
prove it is God's past, present and final purpose to 
renew in us His Spirit likeness. 

However, let us conclude with a brief note from 
the first epistle of Peter. While Peter generalizes 
and declares many marvelous truths, yet it is clear 
that the Apostle has a master idea or thought, which 
he labors to advance with its tremendous force of 
meaning, in which is involved all the redeemed in- 
terests of mankind, to an eminent height of vision 
and comprehension. 






1 10 THREE GREAT FACTS 



His vision seems to embrace all time from eternity 
to eternity. Its mighty sweep comprehends the stu- 
pendous redemptive activities of God from beginning 
to end. He seems to trace the race of mankind back 
to its origin, its cause of derivation, when it was but 
a conceived desire in the heart of the Infinite Creator 
—a Divine choice: "elect according to the fore- 
knowledge of God the Father/' The words "elect" 
and "chosen"are interchangeable. The Apostle Paul 
uses the word "chosen" in Eph. 1 14, "according as 
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of 
the world." God's choice for man's likeness in His 
creating consideration was His own image. His 
own image was His desire for man's likeness. The 
apostles both agree that the effect of the redemption 
of Christ is according to God's first choice or pur- 
pose. God being holy, He could not choose or desire 
anything unholy. To make choice is to decide in 
favor of that which is most agreeable and pleasing, 
most admirable, glorifying. "That we should be to 
the praise of His glory," Eph. 1 :i2. Desire is a 
heart longing for something that will satisfy or give 
pleasure. "According to the good pleasure of His 
will," Eph. 1 15. The desire must agree with the 
thing desired. 

"According to the foreknowledge of God the 
Father." The word "foreknowledge" immediately 
carries us in thought back to some lone spot with 
God when He chose us in Christ to be redeemed to 
His likeness, or be holy and without blame before 



THREE GREAT FACTS 1 1 1 

Him in love. The means and process by which He 
is to realize His desire for man is thus stated. 
"Through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 

Man by the fall of Adam both lost the Divine life- 
likeness and became unclean in his own nature. He 
must have the life-likeness of God restored through 
the work of regeneration, and be cleansed from his 
polluted nature through the sanctifying process of 
Holy Spirit. This truth finds suport again in 2 
Thess. 2:13: "Because God hath from the beginning 
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the 
Spirit and belief of the truth." You will observe 
that this does not refer to the creation of man, but 
to his salvation. And salvation is not complete with- 
out the work of sanctification. 

Ready to be Revealed 

The theme of the apostle Peter after having so 
comprehensively set before us the forethought of 
God, or the preconsideration and prearrangement of 
our redemption, divides into two parallel thoughts 
which run associatively through his two epistles. 

In his first epistle, chapter one, verses 4, 5 he 
speaks of the incorruptible inheritance reserved in 
heaven for those who are kept ready to be revealed 
in the last time. It will be noticed that there are two 
great thoughts implied here. The coming of the 
Lord, and the preparedness or required state of His 
waiting people. In verse 7 he speaks of the glory 



112 THRK£ GR^AT facts 

of the appearing of Christ. How penetrating, how 
searching will be the brightness of His coming; it 
will reveal the soundness and unsoundness of Chris- 
tian profession. It will reveal the sad difference be- 
tween those who only say, "Lord, Lord," and those 
who have succeeded in accomplishing the will of the 
Father. "This is the will of God even your sanctifi- 
cation," I Thess. 4 13. "And the very God of peace 
sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole 
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto 
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ," I Thess. 5 123. 
A life abstaining from all appearance of evil out- 
wardly and sanctified wholly inwardly; and pre- 
served thus unto the coming of the Lord. 

Girding of Mind 

Peter again in verse 13 speaks of the revelation of 
Christ; and, comprehending clearly the importance 
of that mighty event, the object of its coming, and its 
relation to the world, and glorifying effect upon the 
true church; enjoins us to gird up the loins of our 
minds and be sober. "Gird up the loins of our 
mind." This figure of speech derives from the man- 
ner of dressing in the days of the apostle. A girdle 
was used to take up the loseness of the garment and 
keep it in its proper place, so that the person would 
have a proper appearance. The girding of the mind 
means to remove all loose, light, foolish,, unholy, un- 
profitable and unedifying thoughts. To think on 
frivolous, foolish and unholy things brings into the 



THRE£ GREAT FACTS 113 

life a lightness of character and looseness of morals. 
It is as rottenness to the warp and woof of Christian 
character. It was the engaging of mind in consider- 
ing the forbidden fruit that led to the fuin of the 
race. It is true that we are all influenced most by 
that which we study most. 

Soberness of Mind 

"Be sober" — Be serious. The coming of Christ is 
an event of Divine preparation. God planned it in 
the beginning. It is the chief object of the Divine 
will in this age. It is the spiritual fulfillment of the 
field meeting of Isaac and Rebekah — Christ and His 
bride in the clouds. It is the explanation of the mys- 
terious disappearing of Enoch which took place just 
before the flood; the catching away of the church 
just before the tribulation. It is the comfort and 
hope of the church ; her grand release from service 
and suffering ; her rapturous exaltation to the bridet- 
hood. It will be the realization of her grand Divine 
appointment, but a fearful and shocking disappoint- 
ment to the foolish and unprepared. Peter says, "Be 
sober." Be careful, be prayerful; be serious about 
this approaching event. Make sure your calling and 
election. We judge from the many urgent appeals 
and mighty warnings to be ready against His heav- 
enly revelation, that the loss to those who will be 
found unprepared will be infinite. Whatever shall 
be the gain to the prepared, will be the loss to the 
unprepared. Where there is warning there is danger, 



I T4 THR£S grsat facts 

and also where there is warning there is a way of 
escape; hence all that are warned to be ready may 
be ready. 

Bs Holy 

In verses 14, 15, 16 the Apostle explains the pre- 
paredness of soul. "As obedient children not fash- 
ioning yourselves according to the former lusts in 
your ignorance." 1. "Obedient." There must be 
perfect obedience to all the known will of God. 2. 
"Children" ; Must be born of the Spirit and have a 
living spiritual relation and union with the Father, 
and with the Son. The church is of Him, and for 
Him, and will be presented to Him. She is to be 
presented to Him holy and without spot or wrinkle ; 
Eph. 5 \2J\ Col. 1 :22. And if to be presented thus, 
she must be of such character before she is pre- 
sented. 3. "Not fashioning after the former lusts." 
Not patterning after the style of the world nor con- 
forming to its carnal lus tings of pride and folly. 
Not of the former lust. Must change completely the 
style and manner of life. 

The style and manner of life must be after a new 
order, seeing we are now the children of God and 
partakers of His nature, and called with a holy call- 
ing. "But as He which hath called you is holy, so 
be ye holy in all manner of conversation ; because it 
is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." 

The apostle furthermore, speaking of the re- 
demptive work of Christ, refers to His foreordina- 



THREE GREAT FACTS I I 5 

tion before the foundation of the world, and declares 
He was manifested in these last days for us ; that is, 
to carry into effect that which he was foreordained 
to do. The foreknowledge of God determined His 
choice (election). Predestination is that act of the 
Divine will which determines it shall be according to 
His choice, and Christ was foreordained to bring it 
to pass. Hence, you see, the result of Christ's mighty 
redemptive power in its effective application by faith 
upon the soul must be according to the Divine will or 
choice. 

Foreordination reveals the fact that God is able 
in spite of every opposing force to bring things to 
pass according to His purpose. He knows no diffi- 
culty, nothing can embarrass His work ; Christ is the 
ordained means by which He shall accomplish His 
will in man. The effect of the redemption of Christ 
cannot fail to be according to the Divine purpose. 
Seeing God first purposed man to be holy; predes- 
tined him to be holy, and foreordained Christ to re- 
deem him to holiness. 

When Effected 

The great question is, when will the Divine pur- 
pose for us be effected or accomplished? When 
shall our hearts be purified from dross. There is no 
warrant in scripture that it will be accomplished 
after death, but a thousand evidences that it will not 
be accomplished after death. There is no support 
of the idea that it is wrought at the hour of death, 



1 1 6 THREE GREAT FACTS 

though, however, it may be accomplished in that 
late hour, but it is not the Divine plan. There is no 
scripture evidence nor living testimony that the puri- 
fying grace of redeeming love is received at the last 
moment of expiring life. 

We believe that such an idea is conceived through 
satanic advice. It is not at all reasonable to suppose 
that such an infinite need which can only be obtained 
by faith, should be left unrealized until that hour 
when every condition and attending agency renders 
it more difficult to exercise effective faith which will 
appropriate the sanctifying grace, and prevail over 
the struggling powers of death. 

Such a theory seems to make the purifying of the 
heart the result of death instead of faith; for it 
places it in and under a condition when it is much 
less possible to have faith. But the apostle Peter 
answers the question satisfactorily for every in- 
quiry; verses 21, 2,2. It is clear here that effective 
faith must reach God through Christ. "Who by 
Him do believe in God." — Must see through Him to 
see the Father. "He that hath seen Me, hath seen 
the Father." Must believe through Him to receive 
the Father's mercy and love. The effect of faith is 
clearly seen in the 22nd verse. "Seeing ye have puri- 
fied your souls in obeying the truth through the 
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that 
ye love one another with a pure heart, fervently." 
This answers the question as to when the heart may 
be purified. 



THREE GREAT FACTS 117 

Here is a class who, through perfect obedience to 
the leading of the Spirit, and faith through Christ 
purified their souls, and they are exhorted by the 
apostle to manifest perfect love among themselves, 
one toward another. A purified heart has perfect 
love, and perfect love manifested one toward another 
is the evidence of heart purity. 

It matters not what the profession or claim may 
be, if the feelings, affections and desires are not 
under control of this sublime Divine grace, perfect 
love, the claim is false. This essential attribute of 
God will tender our feelings, subdue our energies 
and soften our temperament, but will in no sense 
weaken the firmness of character. Love is uncom- 
promising. It will defend the object of its affections, 
and faithfully warn of every known danger. It is 
never indifferent or careless. Carelessness and in- 
difference is an evidence of a leaking out of love. 

Conscious Change 

Could anybody even suppose that such a marve- 
lous change from death to life, from impurity to pur- 
ity, from enmity to love could be wrought by Divine 
grace in the heart of a conscious being without any 
knowledge of it. 

The restoring of the Divine life to the soul and the 
perfecting of His love within us means, in the most 
complete sense, a severing of all unrighteous earthly 
relations; the loss of fellowship with and pleasure in 
worldly societies, and carnal pleasures; the stop- 



Il8 THR££ GRKAT FACTS 

ping of sinful habits and practice, and the loss of 
desire for them; a change from worldly forms and 
fashions to a Godly piety and soberness to an ever 
molding of our character and life to that of our 
precious Lord. Such can mean no less than a restor- 
ing of that sublime life union with God; the lifting 
of the soul back into its proper spiritual realm with 
Christ. And this can mean no less than the highest 
sublime reality, resulting only in the fullest sense of 
holy communion, fellowship and pleasure ; a fullness 
of soul joy. The soul's proper sphere or realm is 
God. "For in Him we live, and move, and have our 
being," Acts 17:28. To be thus restored through 
our blessed Christ, would of course restore all that 
was lost by the fall. Oh ! who can comprehend the 
richness and supreme blessedness of the soul's glori- 
ous hope in Christ ; the ever bursting beauties that 
shall brighten and adorn the redeemed of earth 
through eternal ages. 

Royal Priesthood 

In tracing further the leading thought of the 
apostle Peter, we find in the 2nd chapter and 9th 
verse a full explanation of the Divine choice. "But 
ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an 
holy nation, a peculiar people ; that ye should shew 
forth the praise of Him who hath called you out of 
darkness into His marvelous light. 55 

There are five points in this text which we desire 
to note briefly. 1. "A chosen generation"- — a gener- 



THREE GREAT FACTS 119 

ation after the choice or desire of God, a generation 
in which His forethought and desire is accom- 
plished ; not a people or generation chosen merely to 
fill a place in the Divine redemptive program, or take 
part in the series of Divine dealing in His dispensa- 
tional methods; but a new generation. The term 
properly means a generation of the Spirit, as the 
word "chosen" implies the redemptive provision by 
which He purposes to bring us back to His purpose 
and desire for us. "According as He hath chosen us 
in Him." — Hence, a spiritual generation or people. 
2. "A royal priesthood." The Spiritual regeneration 
or birth gives us royal parentage. As Christ is our 
King-priest, so we by Spiritual birth enter into the 
royal priesthood. At the death of Christ the veil, 
type of His human body, Heb. 10:20, was rent, so 
that now the believer-priests have access to God in 
the holiest; Heb. 10:19-22. We in the royal priest- 
hood offer unto Him our bodies as a living sacrifice, 
and the sacrifice of praise. 3. "A holy nation." God 
looks upon the redeemed as a nation, a one people. 
"All one in Christ." He began the human race in a 
family order — a holy family of His own likeness. It 
was in this way He was to bring upon the earth a 
holy nation, a one people. Adam was appointed lord 
over the world. Hence he was to be the great Fa- 
ther-lord of the holy family or nation. But Adam 
having failed, and thereby losing the lordship, Christ 
our second Adam came in his stead to purchase back 
the lost estate and restore to us the Eden homestead, 



120 THR£3 GRSAT FACTS 

and raise up a people of His own nature and likeness, 
restoring in us the lost spiritual relation to God. And 
as we are born of His Spirit, you see, He becomes 
the great Father-lord of the redeemed holy nation. 
"Come ye blessed of My Father inherit the Kingdom 
prepared for you from the foundation of the world." 
The kingdom Adam lost will be given back to his re- 
deemed children, but Christ will hold the Lordship 
and Kingship thereof. 4. "A peculiar people." Pe- 
culiar because they are holy. Being holy they are 
separate from the world, and have no pleasure or 
part in its unrighteousness. They are strangers and 
foreigners in this world; their native country is 
heaven. "But Jerusalem which is above is free, 
which is the mother of us all," Gal. 4:26. The 
heavenly Jerusalem is our native city. Hence, our 
citizenship is in Heaven : Phil. 3 120. We are but 
diplomats in this world representing the interest of 
the Divine kingdom, as will be seen in the latter part 
of the 9th verse: "That ye should shew forth the 
praise of Him who hath called you out of darkness 
into His marvelous light." In this fifth division of 
the text we see our holy calling, called out of dark- 
ness, sin. Whatsoever is darkness is not of God ; for 
God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all, 
I John 1 15. Therefore, you see, the Divine call de- 
mands us to come out of all things that are not of 
God ; that does not praise or glorify Him. "Into His 
marvelous light." Here we see, He, having provided 
for us a complete redemption, calls us back from 



Three: great facts 121 

darkness into His light. Oh ; how sweet the sound 
of that voice that calls us back to God and light. It 
seems to say that by some means of meditation the 
Father's wrath is turned away, and He sends us a 
call to come home. Oh ! how glad my soul is to get 
back. 

"Jesus P a ^d ^ all, 
< All to Him I owe ; 

Sin had left a crimson stain 
He washed it white as snow." 

God's Representatives 

Man was created to live and dwell in the light of 
the Divine presence. Through redemption he is 
called back into his marvelous light. 

In this we see the complete work of redeeming 
grace ; we are again made fit to dwell in the light of 
God, and have perfect fellowship with Him. How 
inspiring the thought, how comforting the fact, that 
my soul is again made one with God. It is this great 
work of redemption that we, his representatives, are 
to shew forth in the world to the praise of Him who 
hath called us. He intends His own work will praise 
and glorify Him. A false profession dishonors God ; 
it mocks the power of redeeming grace. To profess 
Christianity through Christ, and still remain unclean, 
sinful and worldly, mocks the claims of grace, and 
denies its saving virtue. "But if we walk in the light, 
as He is in the light, — the blood — cleanses from all 
sin." Therefore, all who claim to be walking in the 



122 THR^K GREAT FACTS 

light of the Divine will and still continue unclean and 
sinful testify against the cleansing virtue of the 
blood, and openly deny the Divine claim. To claim 
Christianity without realizing the Divine claims is 
false ; that is, without realizing the effect God claims 
will be the inevitable result of the application of 
grace by faith. "Therefore being justified by faith, 
we have peace" — Peace is the result. "Purifying 
their hearts by faith." A pure heart is the result. 
And the evidence is the absence of sin in the life, and 
a whole hearted love for God and His truth, and a 
zealousness of life for the interest of His kingdom. 
Man in the moment of his creation stood as a per- 
fect representative of the God-head. He still is 
God's earthly representative of the God-head 
through redeeming grace. "For in Him dwelleth all 
the fullness of the God-head bodily ; and ye are com- 
plete in Him." We are recreated through Christ in 
a perfect relation with the God-head. The Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost agree in one. If we through 
the redemption of Christ are made to agree with one, 
we therefore must agree with all. 

The: End is at Hand 

The apostle Peter in the 4th chapter of his first 
epistle takes a position in view of the closing of the 
course of time ; as he says ; "The end of all things is 
at hand." Under the solemnity of this dreadful ap- 
proaching day of God he lifts his voice in notes of 
solemn warning as in trumpet tones. As time so rap- 



THREE GREAT FACTS I 23 

idly speeds on he feels we are already running the 
last curve in sight of the station. The brakes of the 
Mighty God are already pressing on the wheels, the 
trembling and quivering of the elements are felt, 
the very floor of earth is shaking under our feet. 
The third dispensational trip of time is about run. 

In verse 4 the apostle's sweep of vision reaches to 
the very day of judgment. He sees no part of that 
great Divine arrangement unfinished. The Judge is 
ready to judge the quick and dead, and soon we will 
be called to give an account to Him. He will require 
a strict account of every one of the deeds done in 
the body, whether they be good or bad. And under 
the grip of this awful fact, the apostle cries out in 
judgment earnestness, "Be ye therefore sober, and 
watch unto prayer." 

As he views the scene of the end, and observes 
with great interest its closing process ; the solemnity 
of the hour; the awards given; the righteous re- 
warded ; the unchangeable verdict pronounced upon 
the unrighteous; he sees that the Judge excuses no 
sin ; no lack of required fitness through indifference, 
carelessness or neglect ; no foolishness, folly or 
fashion of the world; no excuse offered because of 
place, position or public sentiment ; no failure due to 
false teaching. The righteous standard of the Judg- 
ment must be observed; so with inspired awe he 
speaks : "Be ye sober, and watch unto prayer. 

Under the light of the Judgment we conclude, that 
if in that hour we stand uncondemned, we must 



124 THR3£ GREAT FACTS 

somewhere between this very hour and the Judgment 
be saved from all sin. We must be brought to the 
righteous standard by which we will be measured in 
that great day. But a single text reveals no hope 
after death : "For it is appointed unto man once to 
die, and after this the Judgment." The soul that 
dies with an account standing against it in the Divine 
court, will await in hell its hearing at the Judgment 
hour. Nothing can change that record after the 
death seal is stamped upon it. When the responsible 
soul leaves the body its life record is finished; its 
probation ended. His life's record stands unchange- 
able against the opening of the books in the Judg- 
ment hour. It will be judged according to the deed 
done in the body. Progress after death, or the second 
chance idea, has not even a shadow of support in the 
scriptures, and no one has any right to insert into the 
space where inspiration has not written, their imagi- 
nary conclusions. 

There is no need of further argument on this 
point. The evidence is sufficient,' that the effect of 
the redemption of Christ in the soul while in the 
mortal body must meet the test of the Judgment. 
"Behold, now is the day of salvation, now is the ac- 
cepted time." "Turn ye, oh! turn ye; for why will 
ye die?" "Herein is our love made perfect, that ye 
may have boldness in the day of Judgment ; because: 
as He is so are \ve in this wdrld," t John 4:17; 



three) great facts 12$ 

Judgment Boldness 

The word "boldness" here means a holy fearless- 
ness. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love 
casteth out fear;" Verse 18. Love is the essential 
ekment of God; for God is love. This Divine ele- 
ment perfected in our hearts brings us into perfect 
agreeableness of life with God. Hence, you see, the 
soul fitness to stand the Judgment test, is not merely 
a record of obedience to Divine law as concerning 
service or commandment keeping, but a condition of 
soul life, a state of being. 

Enmity, hatred and dislike for God and holiness, 
came into the heart of man as a result of sin. It 
took possession of the heart when the Divine love- 
life was destroyed by sin. It is clearly evident that 
God in the beginning intended that the law of love 
would be the motive of obedience. It is clear that the 
love-life was destroyed before the disobedient act. 
When the love for God and His interests is lost out of 
the soul, and a love for the Divine forbidden is con- 
ceived, the result is disobedience — sin. It is this love- 
life completely restored in us through redeeming 
grace that will give us holy fearlessness in the day of 
Judgment. 

Perfect love is a state of life in which there is no 
love for anything but God and the things that pertain 
unto a godly life. This was the state of man before 
the fall, and back to this state Christ came to redeem 
us, "that we may have boldness in the day of Judg- 



126 



three great facts 



ment." The redeeming grace of Christ must take out 
of the soul all that the Judgment light will reveal. 
"The blood cleanses from all sin." Perfect love is 
a life cleansed from all sin. It was sin that destroyed 
the perfection of man and his love for God, and 
his perfection, and love for God cannot be restored 
without the removal of all sin. 

Cai^ed Unto Eternal Glory 

In chapter 5, verse 10, after having earnestly ex- 
horted unto faithful Christian service; feeding the 
flock, not as lords over God's heritage, but as en- 
samples to the flock; resisting steadfast in the faith, 
that when the chief Shepherd shall appear a crown 
of glory may be received ; the apostle flashes before 
us, seemingly w T ith increased brilliancy the eternal 
hope of the redeemed. Having confined his thought 
to the line of Christian service and suffering; resist- 
ing steadfast in faith, the many opposing ideas of 
men, and enduring the many vicissitudes of social 
life; like a flash, his mind sweeps through the cloudy 
scene of life to the day of eternal glory, which will 
reveal the Divine will for man through Christ in its 
final consummation. And like a flame bursting from 
a smoldering ember, he flashes before us this most 
inspiring strain of thought: "But the God of all 
grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory by 
Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, 
make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." 
He has called us to glory through Christ. Therefore, 



three: great facts 127 

it is sufficiently evident that the redemptive provision 
was designed of the Father to bring us back to His 
eternal glory. Furthermore, if such is the predesti- 
nation of the Divine will in Christ, eternal glory will 
be the inevitable final result. And from the text we 
also draw the inference that the suffering, stablish- 
ing, strengthening and settling precedes the eternal 
glory. It is pre-requisite. It is the method of Di- 
vine dealing through grace, by which the soul is 
brought to the glory fitness. It is the trying of faith 
and the testing of character. We must have the 
glory fitness or we can never enter into it. 

The glory of God was lost when man lost the life 
fitness to dwell in it: as in the days of Eli, when his 
sons made themselves vile in the holy sanctuary. 
They profaned the holy place, and as a result the 
Ark of God was taken, and the glory departed, I 
Sam. 4 \22. We must get back to holiness before the 
glory will return. In Col. 3:1-4 we are told the way 
back to His glory. The lost spiritual life must be 
restored. "Risen with Him :" the whole heart desire 
turned back to God. "Seek those things which are 
above:" all the heart affections set on Him. "Set 
your affections on things above, not on things on the 
earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God :" the carnal self or nature destroyed, 
and the life hid with Christ, i. e., clothed again with 
the robe of Divine purity, that, "When Christ, who 
is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
Him in glory." 



128 THREE GREAT FACTS 

GivORY Continued 

The apostle continues to wave aloft this brilliant 
torch of Divine truth, keeping as his leading theme 
our calling of God to glory and virtue. The breaking 
scenes of the Divine theme as they pass before his 
vision seem to lift him and carry him far beyond 
range of human thought or imagination. He sees 
the breaking glory of the grand consummation of the 
Divine plan of human redemption in its perfect and 
complete restorative effect upon the fallen creation 
of God. 

He seems to sense the weakness of the human mind 
to grasp the Divine thought, and the willingness of 
the unspiritual mind to grant it possible to attain 
such a life of glory, and virtue. But he assures the 
believer who dares venture an effort to attain to the 
high calling of God, that there is an adequate pro- 
vision made by Him who has called him, to enable 
him without (peradventure) to realize his desired 
goal. He says, "God, according to His Divine power, 
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life 
and godliness/' — "Whereby (that is, by Him who 
has called us) are given unto us exceding great and 
precious promises; that by these ye might be par- 
taker of His Divine nature." This is the starting 
point. We must first, by faith, partake of His Divine 
nature which He has promised us in Christ, and all 
that pertains to this life is provided by His Divine 
power. There is not a need unmet. But does not 



THRE£ GREAT EACTS 1 29 

reason assure us that if called to such a state it is pos- 
sible to reach it ? The call is an assurance of the pos- 
sibility. 

Partake: oe Divine Nature 

The soul fitness to dwell with God may be success- 
fully argued from the fact that through the means 
of redemption He imparts anew into our very being 
His Divine nature. And it being of God is therefore 
like God, and being like Him, is therefore fit to dwell 
with Him. And being in a Divine state of being, it 
is also a Divine state of glory or glory-fitness. 

If we grant any hope for a sinner in the hour of 
death, we must also grant that it is possible for the 
Lord to fit a soul in a very few moments to live in 
His presence. We do not want, how r ever, to be un- 
derstood to claim glorification in this life. No, not 
that; glorification is the completed work of redemp- 
tion in the resurrection exercise. But we do contend, 
that if the soul at the death of the body goes out to 
be with Christ, that associative fitness must be real- 
ized before its departure. The resurrection has only 
to do with the body. But the soul resurrection is 
now. It is raised with Him through the faith of the 
operation of God, Col. 2 :n. The spiritual resurrec- 
tion of the soul is just as truly a Divine act or a Di- 
vine operation as will be the resurrection of the body. 
There is a measure of similarity between them. Just 
as truly as the body responds to the voice of Christ, 
and comes forth, thus breaking all connection with 



130 THREE great facts 

the grave — and thus coming forth it comes sweep- 
ing into another state of being and sphere of exist- 
ence, — even so the soul, responding to the operation 
of the Spirit, comes forth from spiritual death to a 
new state of being and sphere of existence ; to walk 
in newness of life, Rom. 6:4; not a life in sin, but 
free from sin : a resurrection out of, a coming forth : 
raised with Him to live in Him. 

Purpose of Redemption 

It must be remembered that the purpose of the re- 
demption is to destroy the works of the devil, I John 
3:8; to redeem us from all iniquity and purify us 
unto Himself that He might present us holy. 

Man had a perfect human body before he sinned. 
He had human feelings, affections and desires. The 
five senses are set in the human temple. These are 
not destroyed with the destruction of sin. Some ac- 
cording to their idea of holiness or Christian perfec- 
tion would rob us of all our humanity. They seem 
to make death to sin mean death to the whole human 
side of life. No, the thing that dies is sin, not the 
human. 

Peter closes his epistle with a high-sounding note 
of warning and most earnest admonition; in view 
of the fact that the day of the Lord will come as a 
thief in the night; breaking upon the unwatchful 
and unprepared without any previous introduction 
of its dreadful approach at which time the elements 
will burst into a flame, and the whole time struc- 



THRES GREAT FACTS I3I 

ttire will fall with a terrific crash, and its elements 
melt with fervent heat. Thus the apostle speaks: 
"Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what 
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conver- 
sation and godliness ;" and, "Wherefore, beloved, 
seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that 
ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, 
and blameless/ ' No comment is necessary here to 
bring to an easier comprehension the apostle's 
thought. It is very simple and yet profound. The 
preparedness of the soul for the coming of the Lord 
is purity of heart, holiness; as he says, "without 
spot and blameless." 

Now, as we approach the consummation of our 
labor of incorporating a few thoughts concerning 
the creation, fall and redemption of man, we will 
consider briefly the Divine will. We believe we 
have made it sufficiently clear that God's will for 
man in the beginning was holiness, or His image. 
And, we believe it reasonable to suppose, however, 
that His will for man to be wrought out through 
the redemption is still the same. Christ said, "Lo, 
I come to do Thy will, O God." Thus we see that 
Christ came to accomplish the will of God in man. 
And He says, "by the which will we are sancti- 
fied." And again, "This is the will of God even 
your sanctification," 1 Thess. 4:3. And in Gal. 
1 4, "Who gave Himself for our sins, that He 
might deliver us from this present evil world, ac- 
cording to the will of God and our Father." Here 



132 THR££ GREAT FACTS 

you see, we are delivered according to the Divine 
will. "That ye may stand perfect and complete in 
all the will of God," Col. 4:12. "That ye may be 
perfect and entire, wanting nothing/' James 1 14. 

Note the chief idea of these texts. 1. "Lo, I 
come to do Thy will, O God." Thus it is clear 
that Christ came to accomplish the Divine will. 

2. "By the which will we are sanctified through 
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for 
all," Heb. 10:9, 10. Hence, He came to sanctify, 
make us holy, restore us to first state. "Created in 
righteousness and true holiness," Eph. 4:24. "Re- 
newed in knowledge after the image of Him that 
created him," Col. 3:10. Confirmed in 1 Thess. 
4:3, "This is the will of God, your sanctification." 

3. "Deliver us from this present evil world." De- 
liver, means to restore to former liberty. What- 
ever man's state of freedom was before the fall, 
such will be his freedom when completely delivered 
through Christ. If the redemption of Christ does 
not restore the soul to the same state, wherein it 
can exercise the same liberty and enjoy the same 
privileges according to the Divine will, as before 
the fall, then the soul is still in some degree, in 
bondage to sin. Hence, the redemption has failed 
utterly ; for the least degree of sin in the soul, sev- 
ers its union with God. But the word is clear in 
expression. "That ye may stand perfect and com- 
plete in all the will of God," Col. 4:12. And, 
"That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting noth- 



thrive; gr^at facts 133 

ing," James 1 4. "Entire" is a condition in which 
there is no essential element lacking, and no non- 
essential element remaining. By the effective work- 
ing of the redemption of Christ the entire sin and 
its effect is removed, and the entire lost fullness is 
restored. The effect of the redemption equals the 
effect of sin. 

Knowledge of His Wiu, 

The fact that God has a will for us or a stand- 
ard of life and service, is positive evidence that we 
may know what it is. It would be absurd to sup- 
pose that He would keep it in obscurity, or that He 
is unable to reveal it to us in a comprehensive man- 
ner. There must be a perfect knowledge of the 
Divine will before there can be a performance of 
it. And, again, it would be as equally absurd to 
suppose He would establish a will or law of life 
and service and not require us to come to its stand- 
ard of life and obey its requirements of service. If 
He who gives a law does hot require those to whom 
it is given to obey it, such actions would be a mock- 
ery of supreme rulership, and a mere flirting with 
right and wrong. Again, where there is a known 
law given, the law itself is positive evidence that 
those to whom it is given may keep it if they will 
to do so. There can be no responsibility, where 
there is no possibility. Responsibility only rests 
upon the fact of possibility. Obligation and possi- 
bility are both revealed in the fact of punishment. 



134 three: great facts 

We must know the law in order that we might 
keep it. And if it is impossible for us to keep the 
requirements of the law, the punishment will be 
unjust. Seeing then that Christ came to accom-. 
plish the will of God, and that His will for us is 
holiness, "Where art thou?" 

What is Life? 

Finally, let us conclude with a brief contempla- 
tion of the great question, "What is life?" In our 
contemplation of the creation of man we saw the 
various demonstrations of this mysterious some- 
thing called life, as it entered into the physical or- 
ganism, its consciousness and intelligence. When 
we observe the product of man's intellectual power, 
we are overwhelmingly convinced that he is of high 
origin, an offspring of Infinite intelligence. From 
age to age and from generation to generation, man 
has furnished evidence of the fact that he is en- 
dowed with a superior intellectual power and capa- 
bility. By the power of his inventive genius he 
has furnished himself with such means as enables 
him to travel in vision, the far distant worlds, and 
tread in thought the mazy path through which this 
mighty planet has coursed from its moment of ori- 
gin. Had he not fallen from his first designed 
state and place what incomprehensible possibilities 
and heights of attainments would have lain before 
him! What delightful access he would have had 
into the profound mysteries of God! Man's ad- 



THREK GREAT FACTS 135 

vanced learning, his science and discoveries, his 
mighty inventions, are evidences of the fact that 
he possesses intellectual faculties capable of eternal 
development. A menial law of Divine establish- 
ment, which if permitted to operate and enforce its 
power, will drive out ignorance and lift the intel- 
lectual man to great heights of knowledge. We see 
this law, though fearfully weakened and hampered 
by the effect of sin, yet remaining in the seat of the 
mind in a measure of effective operation. On the 
resurrection morning it will be restored to the free 
exercise of its power. But "What is man that 
thou art mindful of him?" — the eternal man, the 
conscious intelligence himself — what is he? He is 
the very object of Divine affection and love, the 
product of His Holy desire. His origin answers 
the great question. His first appearance is men- 
tioned in Genesis 2 \J : "And the Lord God formed 
man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became 
a living soul :" the eternal man, the breath of God, 
properly the very life of God, hence a part of God's 
eternal being. Then, "What is man?" He is a 
part of God's eternal being, an offspring of Deitv. 
"Of God"— Rom. 11:36. "Of God" or "out of 
God." Breathed out of God into man. Hence, 
man's spiritual being is a generalization of God. It 
being of God, is a part of God and therefore like 
God. To regenerate is to reproduce the likeness 
of the generator. Hence, regeneration is but self- 



136 THREE GREAT FACTS 

duplication. God is eternal life and therefore man's 
spirit being of God must be eternal. It cannot die, 
i. e., it cannot cease to be. Its existence is co-eter- 
nal with God. 

Mortality 

The mortality resulting from the transgression 
affected no part of man but his physical being. 
The immortality of the body was sustained by eat- 
ing of the tree of life. To this God forbids man's 
return, while in sin, and to which he will have ac- 
cess after the resurrection. It is the mortal body 
made out of the dust of the ground that ceases to 
be, through the laws of disintegration. The im- 
mortal spirit and soul, that living breath of God 
lives on and on co-existently with Him from whom 
it came. 

Eternal Death 

Eternal death — What does it mean? There is 
much that may be said about it, and there is much 
that may not be said. All we know about it is what 
God has seen fit to explain. The effect of sin is 
spiritual death, or properly, separation from God. 
It is the loss of living union with God. We see 
that Adam retained his consciousness, intelligence 
and life after he sinned. All the noble faculties of. 
the soul remained active. It is the soul that hopes, 
aspires, and seeks to obtain or attain. It is the ag- 
gressive part of man that pushes forward amidst 



THR££ GR£AT FACTS 137 

its contending foes to realize its hopes and desires. 
This wonderful something called the soul, had it 
not fallen by sin, would have aggressively risen to 
higher heights of immortal glory, broader visions 
of God, and grander attainments of Divine wisdom 
and power, through all eternity. It is never satis- 
fied with its present acquirements, but its acquisi- 
tive disposition pursues on and after the things that 
lie before it. What will it mean to be eternally 
separated from God and all that is blessed, from 
all the infinite privileges and possibilities that it 
would have realized and enjoyed if it had not fallen, 
and will again be enjoyed if redeemed by God 
through Christ? — eternal separation or loss of all 
its Divine rights; ever seeking, but never finding; 
ever aspiring, but never rising; hoping, but never 
realizing; ever looking for light, but never a ray 
flashes across the darkened mind; weeping, but 
never comforted; suffering, but never relieved. It 
is the soul that sufifers; it is the soul that rejoices. 
The soul is polluted by sin, and God being holy, 
there is therefore the most absolute separation be- 
tween God and man. It was the holiness of the in- 
breathed life that formed the union between God 
and His created, and unless the lost holiness of life 
is restored the soul will remain eternally separated 
from God. 

And therefore, as the Scripture saith : "He gave 
Himself for us that He might redeem us from all 



138 



THR££ GM)AT FACTS 



iniquity and purify unto Himself (or unto His own 
likeness), a peculiar people, zealous of good works/' 
Life is then a part of God, is eternal as God, is the 
holiness of God, and is union with God. There- 
fore, He saith : "Be ye holy for I am holy." 




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